Kangaroo Facts
Some Kangaroo Facts You May Not Know
If you look up kangaroo facts, you will learn that the word, kangaroo, is used for all species in the family named macropods.
Adult female kangaroos are known as does.
Adult male kangaroos are known as bucks.
No matter where you go in Australia, you will find at least one species of kangaroo living in the area.
The large family of macropods (kangaroos) is separated in two sub-families. These include the Macropodidae--kangaroos and tree kangaroos, wallabies and forest wallabies, and pademelons. The second group, the Potoroidae, include bettongs, potoroos, and rat- kangaroos.
Kangaroos move by hopping, and they cannot move backwards.
A kangaroo’s tail is used as a fifth limb and gives them balance while hopping.
Kangaroos are herbivores and only eat plant matter.
The stomach of a kangaroo contains compartments, somewhat like a cow.
Cows fart, but kangaroos do not.
At birth, a kangaroo is only one inch high.
In Australia, there are forty-five species of kangaroos and wallabies.
The name kangaroo came from one of the Aboriginal languages, “Guugu Yimidhirr.” Gangurru was a Grey Kangaroo.
A baby kangaroo is called a joey.
Although kangaroos do live throughout Australia, they can also be found in Papua New Guinea.
The biggest marsupial in the world is the Australian red kangaroo. Mammals who have a pouch are called marsupians.
A pouch on a kangaroo opens toward the front, while a pouch on a koala opens to the back.
Red kangaroos can grow to be over six feet high and weigh over two hundred pounds.
A mob is a group of kangaroos.
Kangaroo facts which have been collected reveal that a kangaroo can travel at speeds equal to 44 mph.
A kangaroo can jump up to ten feet high and leap forward by as much as 26 feet in one hop.
The gestation period of a kangaroo is only 31-36 weeks.
At birth, a one-inch high kangaroo has no hair, sight, or hearing, but his rear legs work well enough that he can crawl down his mother’s fur into the pouch and grab onto a nipple. The mother wets a path with saliva so the baby knows where to crawl.
Kangaroos and wallabies are called roos.
In the wild, a kangaroo can live up to eighteen years.
Six species of kangaroos are extinct, and several are considered to be endangered.
When kangaroos are on land, they cannot move their rear legs one at a time--they can only hop. But when a kangaroo is in the water swimming, he can move both legs independently.
Kangaroo facts tell us that a baby kangaroo is not weaned until he is over one year old.
Kangaroos do not need to drink water for weeks as they get moisture from the grasses they eat.