Behaviors

Habitat

Diet

Kangaroos are unique animals. They are marsupials, which means they have an external pouch to carry their young. Kangaroos are the largest of all marsupial mammals, and they belong to the Macropodidae family.

Male kangaroos are known as boomers or bucks. Females are called does or flyers. A baby kangaroo is a joey. Physical features of kangaroo vary between males and females as well as the three different breeds, so some are taller or heavier than others. However, the average height ranges from three to eight feet. The average weight falls between 40 and 200 lbs.

Kangaroos have strong back legs, long feet, and clawed fourth toes. They move by hopping and use their large tails for steering. The tail is also used as a third leg if a kangaroo is standing or moving very slowly. The are unique because kangaroos are unable to walk backwards.

The kangaroo is often associated with it's native country, Australia. This is one of the only places that it inhabits, with nearly 23,000,000 kangaroos living there. Although there are 52 different species of kangaroo, there are three main types. The Red Kangaroo, the Western Grey, and the Eastern Grey all inhabit Australian continent but are found in different regions. They also have slightly different physical characteristics when it comes to size and shape.

The kangaroo appears on the Australian coat of arms, as a symbol of progress, of moving forward and never back.

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Kangaroo Activities and External Links:

After learning all you can about kangaroos from visiting this site, you might want to try a word search with all the new kangaroo terminology you know! Or if what you've read just isn't enough, check out these fun facts about kangaroos.

For additional information on the kangaroo, I recommend the websites for the following organizations:

National Wildlife Federation

International Wildlife Magazine

Enchanted Learning

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