Cooby Dam

It's been rainy the last couple days, but after a reconnaissance mission to Cooby Dam just outside Toowoomba, we made another trip yesterday to explore. This dam provides water to the city of Toowoomba and surrounding communities. As you see, we saw Eastern Grey Kangaroos.

There was a mob of 'roos just resting in a field near the dam. One was carrying a rather large joey in her pouch. It just looked as if he/she dived in for a snack. That's an awfully big pouch to drag about.

Notice the size of the claws on the mother's forelegs! Sure would hate to cross her path.

I read a book on the natural history of Australia a while back and learned that female 'roos inhibit the development of a fetus while caring for a joey. This along with the frequent coupling of male and female means that the females are permanently pregnant. She holds the fetus until she is done with the joey and then starts it's development. Once it is born, she breeds again and gets another pregnancy on hold. No wonder we see dead 'roos frequently along side the road as we drive. This constant reproduction makes them terribly prolific.

Our friends here tell us that 'roos aren't very predictable when along side the road and are just as likely to jump in front of you as out of the way. At least these guys are not as large a deer and probably won't total the truck.

The cloudy day make it difficult to focus on the birds at the dam with the long lens on the N1 camera. We plan another visit when the sun is out (and it is warmer) to try again. I'll post photos as soon as I have some to show.