The incredible story of a father and son who survived crocs and trigger-happy farmers during 16,000km trek around Australia to save kangaroos - and the sobering reason their trip came to an end
David and Mark Howison walked around Australia in 1973/74 to raise awareness about the plight of kangaroos
The father and son realised during their 16,000km trek that kangaroos were abundant and did not need help
Along the way they encountered aggressive wildlife - and humans - as well as road trains and dangerous roads
Mark Howison has now written about the pair s extraordinary adventure in a new book called 13 Pairs of Boots
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Representatives Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH) and John Katko (R-NY) reintroduced the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) in early February to the House of Representatives. The bill also has 22 co-sponsors and focuses on ways to prevent child abuse.
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The bill includes collecting data and information about animal abuse, because it’s a risk factor related to child abuse. The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) endorsed the re-introduction of the bill.
“In a violent household, companion animals are often victims of the same abusive behaviors that harm children, intimate partners, and vulnerable adults,” said Nancy Blaney, director of government affairs for AWI, “Often, the first person to identify a child in a dangerous situation is a law enforcement officer responding to an animal cruelty call.”
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IMAGE: A kangaroo displays gaze alternation between the transparent box with food inside it and with a human. view more
Credit: Dr Alexandra Green
Animals that have never been domesticated, such as kangaroos, can intentionally communicate with humans, challenging the notion that this behaviour is usually restricted to domesticated animals like dogs, horses or goats, a first of its kind study from the University of Roehampton and the University of Sydney has found.
The research which involved kangaroos, marsupials that were never domesticated, at three locations across Australia , revealed that kangaroos gazed at a human when trying to access food which had been put in a closed box. The kangaroos used gazes to communicate with the human instead of attempting to open the box themselves, a behaviour that is usually expected for domesticated animals.
The western gray kangaroo (
Macropus fuliginosus) in Donnelly Mills, Western Australia. Image credit: Sean Mack / CC BY-SA 3.0.
“Domestication is generally assumed to have resulted in enhanced communication abilities between non-primate mammals and humans, although the number of species studied is very limited (cats, dogs, wolves, goats, and horses),” said lead author Dr. Alan McElligott from the University of Roehampton and his colleagues.
“In species without hands for pointing, gazing at humans when dealing with inaccessible food during an unsolvable task, and in particular gaze alternations between a human and the unsolvable task, are often interpreted as attempts at referential intentional communication.”
Kangaroos can communicate with humans despite never being domesticated, according to a new study.
Researchers say their findings challenge the notion that this behaviour is usually restricted to animals like dogs, horses or goats.
The research looked at kangaroos at three locations across Australia and found that the animals gazed at a human when trying to access food placed in a closed box.
The kangaroos used gazes to communicate with the human instead of attempting to open the box themselves, a behaviour that is usually expected for domesticated animals, the scientists say.
Lead author Dr Alan McElligott, who conducted the study at the University of Roehampton (now based at City University of Hong Kong), said: “Through this study, we were able to see that communication between animals can be learnt and that the behaviour of gazing at humans to access food is not related to domestication.