If you want to see Kangaroos in the wild you will have to go to Australia and or some surrounding islands. Kangaroos live in varied habitats, from forests and woodland areas to grassy plains and savannas. They travel in organized groups or “mobs,” dominated by the largest male. Male kangaroos are called boomers, bucks or jacks; females are does, flyers, or jills, and the young ones are joeys. The collective noun for kangaroos is a mob, troop or court.
Because of its long feet, a kangaroo cannot walk normally. To move at slow speeds, a kangaroo will use its tail to form a tripod with its two forelimbs. It then raises its hind feet forward, in a form of locomotion called “crawl-walking.”
Usually, female kangaroos give birth to one joey at a time. Newborns weigh as little as 0.03 ounces at birth – as small as a lima bean! After birth, the joey crawls into its mother’s pouch, where it will nurse and continue to grow and develop. Red kangaroo joeys do not leave the pouch for good until they are more than eight months old. Gray kangaroo joeys wait until they are almost a year old.
Kangaroos can grow to between 3 and 8 feet (1 to 3 meters) tall, and they can weigh between 40-200 pounds (18 to 100 Kilograms), depending on the species. The Eastern Gray Kangaroo is the heaviest marsupial in the world, and the Red Kangaroo is the largest. When a Kangaroo senses danger, it alerts others by loudly thumping its feet on the ground and can also make grunting, coughing, hissing and clicking noises. A male’s jump can be 10 feet (3 m) high and 30 feet (9 m) long, and can reach speeds of up to 40 mph (60 kph). They burn less energy the faster they hop – at least up to their cruise control speed of about 20 miles per hour (32 kph).
Now that you know a bit more about the Kangaroo come Downunder to Australia and watch for Kangaroos in the wild on a CTE tour and learn a lot more about these magnificent marsupials.
