When I was a kid my family found an injured kangaroo at he side of a suburban road in Canberra, We put it in the car and took it home (it wasn’t very big). My parents got advice on how to nurse it back to health. I remember it used to sleep in a sugar sack hung on the back of the door. We didn’t have it long before it was released back into the bush.
When I was in Australia, they told me that wombats are social and able to be domesticated when they’re little, but become insular, withdrawn, solitary, and crochety as they mature, and thus don’t generally make good pets. That, and they’re incredibly strong (as has already been noted) and shockingly massive for all their apparent small size. They’re better off in the wild, by all accounts. Sad, too, because they are the most endearingly cute critters.
Pigs are not aloof, they are quite affectionate and can be easily trained, just like dogs. Many people believe them to be smarter than dogs. They are territorial and protective of their owners if you’ve established a bond.
I saw a beaver once for a wildlife rehabber. My receptionists were in a tizzy after her phone call. I guess that was the first time a woman called and said, “I’d like the doctor to check my beaver.”.
Kangaroo is good meat. But for all that we grow the damned things, it’s hard to find it in supermarkets and butchers sometimes. And usually when they do get it in, they put the packages labelled “For Human Consumption” in with the pet food! Fiends.
Plus hubby doesn’t like it, so it’s a rare day now when I get to eat a kangaroo steak… sigh.
Perhaps it was drugged so that it wouldn’t object to being handled. Koalas have a reputation for being very cranky buggers and they can do a lot of damage with their claws. I wouldn’t touch one.
They feed only on certain types of leaves as well, so I think keeping one as a pet would be difficult and thankless.
