Australia's kangaroos' confusing behavior: sneaking into the toilet to eat toilet paper

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, the World Health Organization’s latest statement said: Hundreds of countries and regions have been affected by the epidemic.

After this was said, foreigners who had not taken it seriously before also started to become nervous and followed China's epidemic prevention methods: isolating themselves at home and not going out.

In order to reduce the number of times you go out, stockpiling supplies is of course necessary. First of all, alcohol, masks and disinfectants, the three "anti-epidemic big brothers" are indispensable. In addition, various foods are also in high demand. But what is unexpected is that toilet paper is also a popular commodity that foreigners are scrambling to buy.

Places like Singapore, the United States, Japan, and Canada were relatively quick to act. Within two hours of the epidemic alert being issued, all kinds of toilet paper on supermarket shelves were sold out.

Even crazier than these countries is Australia. According to a report by the British “Guardian”: On March 7 local time, in a large supermarket in Sydney, two customers quarreled over toilet paper. Fortunately, the incident was under control after the police arrived at the scene.

It looks like Australians are acting out human confusion: "It's just a few rolls of toilet paper. Is it necessary to fight so hard to get them?"

However, for Australians, every roll of toilet paper is very precious, because in addition to humans in Australia who are scrambling for toilet paper, there is also a group of Australian "aboriginals" who are also scrambling for toilet paper, and that is the Australian kangaroos .

Anyone who knows a little about Australia should know that on this 7.68 million square kilometers of land, the real masters are not humans, but various local wild animals.

Moreover, most of the animals on this continent are species unique to Australia, including 80% of the 378 species of mammals, 773 of the more than 800 species of reptiles, and almost half of the more than 600 species of birds.

If you travel to Australia, you can experience the real-life version of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". The most representative of Australia's "Fantastic Beasts" is the Australian kangaroo. Therefore, every tourist who travels to Australia will basically have one thing on their itinerary: to see the kangaroos.

Normally, kangaroos can be seen in parks or in the wild, but surprisingly, kangaroos can often be seen in public toilets in Australia because they like to run into public toilets to eat toilet paper.

Matt, a backpacker from the UK, shared his funny story of encountering a kangaroo in a public toilet on the Internet.

That night, he and a few friends were drinking and chatting at a campsite in Flinders Ranges National Park in Australia. Suddenly, he felt the urge to urinate, so he got up and went to a public toilet in the campsite to relieve himself, but he saw a magical scene.

Several kangaroos were tearing up toilet paper in a public toilet. A few torn strips of paper were scattered on the ground. They were still chewing them with relish in their mouths. Anyone who looked at them could tell that they were eating toilet paper.

Having heard about the kangaroos' super fighting ability, Matt did not dare to disturb them while they were eating. He could only take out his mobile phone to record the scene and then hurriedly fled the toilet.

This rare thing may be new to tourists, but Australians have long been accustomed to it, because almost all Australian public toilets have been visited by kangaroos. Among them, public toilets in tourist attractions are more like "Starbucks" in the kangaroo world, where you can get satisfaction when you are tired, thirsty or hungry.

Although many tourists have reported to the scenic area that there is often no toilet paper in the public toilets, the scenic area staff are helpless because they cannot beat the kangaroos, let alone kill them? Forget it.

Even if we really want to fight, we may not be able to defeat the kangaroos...

But then again, all this is not a big problem for tourists coming to Australia, but rather adds a bit of joy to their trip. The worst-hit are the Australians, because kangaroos have invaded not only public toilets, but even private toilets.

But usually it is the baby kangaroos that break into private homes to steal toilet paper. Because they are usually very thin and weak, it is difficult for them to compete with adult kangaroos for toilet paper in public toilets. They can only take risks and run to the territory of "two-legged beasts" to steal some toilet paper to sustain their lives.

So why are these kangaroos going to public toilets and even private homes to steal toilet paper? Is it because they can't even find food in the wild?

Not to mention, there is a real food shortage in Australia for wild animals, and the main reason for this situation is the widespread drought in Australia.

Image source: NASA satellite image

According to the "Climate Status Report 1999-2018" released by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, winter rainfall in southern Australia has dropped by 15% in the past two decades , causing the land to become increasingly dry.

In February 2018, an international study published in the journal Climate Change, a subsidiary of Nature, explored the connection between extreme weather caused by climate change and food shortages. The study showed that the increase in droughts, floods and fires caused by global warming directly affects the yield of food crops .

In addition, the wildfires that broke out in Australia in July 2019 made the situation even worse. The fire burned for seven months before it was completely extinguished. It is estimated that the area of ​​forest burned across Australia reached 11.2 million hectares, stretching over 1,400 kilometers of coastline.

There is no other way. Many wild animals can only flock to the suburbs or cities where Australians live in search of food. Therefore, sometimes adult kangaroos break into private homes, mainly because they are so hungry that they can't stand it anymore.

Australians also understand the situation of these kangaroos. If they encounter them stealing toilet paper, they will just wait for them to finish their meal and then ask them to leave.

However, seeing kangaroos eating toilet paper, some people are worried whether the paper will cause harm to them.

In response to this question, Dr. David Croft, a kangaroo behaviorist from the University of New South Wales, said: "Kangaroos like toilets, probably because they think it's cooler here, and the toilet paper they eat is made of fine wood, which is much tastier than the rough wood outside, and kangaroos have a good ability to decompose fiber, eating toilet paper is equivalent to eating the hay and bark that originally belonged to them. "

The only thing worth worrying about is whether the kangaroos can distinguish between toilet paper before and after use...