The red kangaroo is Australia's largest terrestrial land mammal, the largest extant marsupial, and the only kangaroo truly restricted to Australia's arid interior. When a young Alan Newsome began to study it in 1957, he discovered how droughts affect reproduction, why red kangaroos favor different habitats during droughts from those after rains, and that unprecedented explosions in red kangaroo numbers were caused by changes to the landscape wrought by graziers. Most importantly, he realized the possibilities of enriching western science with Indigenous knowledge, a feat recognized today as one of the greatest achievements of his career.
First drafted in 1975 and now revised and prepared for publication by his son, The Red Kangaroo in Central Australia captures Alan's thoughts as a young ecologist working in Central Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.
