{"id":22065,"date":"2025-05-28T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/if-its-ok-to-have-a-red-kangaroo-what-other-unusual-animals-can-we-own-in-colorado\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T15:15:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:15:00","slug":"if-its-ok-to-have-a-red-kangaroo-what-other-unusual-animals-can-we-own-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/if-its-ok-to-have-a-red-kangaroo-what-other-unusual-animals-can-we-own-in-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"If it\u2019s OK to have a red kangaroo, what other unusual animals can we own in Colorado?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A still image from video provided by the Durango Police Department shows Irwin the pet kangaroo being captured on March. (Courtesy of Durango Police Department)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Every few years, it seems, some exotic animal pops into the news in Colorado and reignites the question: How far out can you really go, when it comes to owning a pet in this state?<\/p>\n

Thanks to Durango\u2019s escape artist red kangaroo, we\u2019ve recently been reminded that the cute little marsupials are allowed. Technically, they fall into the category of \u201cunregulated wildlife.\u201d That makes them, in the words of the law, legal to own, \u201cprovided that all importation, disease requirements and all other state, local or federal requirements are met.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Parks and Wildlife maintains a Noah\u2019s Ark-length list of animals that you can own without a permit. While the public may think of \u201cpets\u201d and \u201cexotic pets,\u201d the state\u2019s classifications are \u201cdomestic animals\u201d and \u201cunregulated wildlife.\u201d Under domestic animals, you\u2019ll find familiar standbys like cats, dogs and hamsters, plus some more unusual fare, including emus, alpacas, reindeer and camels.<\/p>\n

\"A
A Weld County prairie dog colony November 2019. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cUnregulated wildlife\u201d is what the state calls everything else it allows, from African pygmy hedgehogs to zebras, and yes, red kangaroos (but not, we should note, the other three varieties of \u2018roo known to science). And that\u2019s just the mammals; this is also the classification for all pet birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. Generally, animals on this list come from the tropics and subtropics, and so can\u2019t be expected to survive very long on their own outside in Colorado.<\/p>\n

But the list of allowed \u201cunregulated wildlife\u201d is far from exhaustive, and some Coloradans don\u2019t follow the rules. For instance, the Patagonia mara spotted last year at Lakewood\u2019s Bear Creek Lake Park? Not legal to own as a pet in Colorado. Neither are gila monsters, something that popped into the news after a gila named Winston fatally bit its owner in Lakewood last February.<\/p>\n

Even for exotic pets, the state does allow, owners need to make sure they\u2019re also in good graces with their local governments. Some, like Colorado Springs, require a specific permit for the more exotic varieties of exotic animals.<\/p>\n

\"Curious
Curious raccoons crowd to see a reporter visiting the Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, June 29, 2019.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

That\u2019s how the state handles potential pets from other places. When it comes to native mammals, Colorado\u2019s rules are clear: You can\u2019t make a pet out of any wild animal regulated by the state. That means no (voluntarily) sharing your home with raccoons, possums, or foxes, among others. When it comes to those animals, you\u2019re forbidden both from taking them out of the wild and from bringing them in from other states, even if they were legal there.<\/p>\n

Which means the next time my 11-year-old insists her heart is set on a pet prairie dog, I\u2019ll be able to blame Colorado law and avoid the argument.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

out can you really go, when it comes to owning a pet in this state?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1031,28,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-parks-and-wildlife","tag-headlines","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22065"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}