Kangaroo horde makes itself at home, in Georgia

September 8, 2000
Web posted at: 2:50 PM EDT (1850 GMT)

From Correspondent David George

(CNN) -- Atlanta may pass the Olympic torch to Sydney this summer, but a piece of the Outback thrives of in a small Georgia town, which hosts the largest collection of kangaroos outside Australia.

"It's a rather unusual thing to see, particularly in north Georgia," said Stephen Prazak, visiting the Kangaroo Conservation Center in Dawsonville, a small mountain town about 60 miles from Atlanta.

Debbie and Roger Nelson, who own the center, have made the 87-acre preserve and the animals their life's work.

"From the time you raise them as a little baby, they have really become part of your family and you know them as individuals," Roger Nelson said.

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"So few people have seen a kangaroo up close or in the wild and the more we worked with them, the more fascinated we became," Debbie Nelson said.

For 15 years the Nelsons have contributed money out of their own pockets, never taking a salary from the operations. Most of the funds to run the center come from their private investments. But they also make money selling kangaroos to zoos and conducting safaris for the public.

Visitors on the two-hour tours learn about kangaroos and other exotic residents of the preserve, including an African rodent, a tiny antelope known as a Dik Dik and a variety of birds.

But the kangaroos are definitely the main attraction.

"Just watching them work, watching them move, watching them eat, watching deal with everyday things up close is fascinating," Prazak said.

Keeping the center operational is a full-time job, the Nelsons said, requiring a small team of biologists and other workers. Each animal has a special diet and the staff keeps detailed records of the growth, bloodlines and eating and mating habits.

"We are actually licensed by both state and federal entities and when we so send an animal to another facility, we make sure that it is qualified to take care of the animal," Roger Nelson said.

Despite the attention, the kangaroos live as natural a life as possible, the couple said.

"We don't generally hand raise the kangaroos unless we absolutely have to," Debbie Nelson said.

"We have such large fields they kangaroos are almost as if they would be in the wild. But they do become accustomed to people."

The hopping marsupials live about seven years longer in the preserve than they do in the wild.

They hope that personal experience with the animals will inspire the public to protect the natural home of the kangaroos as well.

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Kangaroo Conservation Center

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