2013 - 2014 2 x eastern grey joeys Ryan Missy, 6 kg each.

2013-14 Ryan & Missy, eastern grey joeys at about 6 kg each.

Our first macropods  had arrived at Rocklily. They seemed so small to be left out in our pen! The local house mob had joeys at foot at the same size. After a number of weeks Ryan & Missy were quite at home in their pen, having found a little hideaway among the bracken to bathe in the sun, or sheltering in their shed from the rain. The local wallabies, roos and wombats would pass their pen through the bracken so both got to see who was around. We started exercise and walks outside the pen when we were sure they would hang around for their evening roo nut treat (it's just compacted lucerne). They were timid at first, and came out only a few metres, while we calmly sat on our chairs nearby reading with the little green bucket they had come to associate with their nuts. Just sitting with the wild mob nearby eating was very relaxing, and as the weeks went by Ryan & Missy did laps around the shed and house, and moving among the mob, getting roused on if too close to a big male. We were glad to see they were not chased away, but calmly accepted. Missy was far more daring than Ryan and a few months older and would bound up the cleared hill behind the house to where most of the big boys hung out.

We have gone on to release another 27 macropods here in the following years (just got to get time to write about them all). We lost 3 only—one from a twisted bowel, one had a stroke, two died from cocci within a week of arrival and Benny swallowed a sharp object, possibly bone as they like to eat bones for nutrition