40 Fun Facts About Red Kangaroo

A newborn red kangaroo, which will spend some eight months in the pouch, is about the size of what?

A jellybean is about right: the blind, hairless newborn weighs roughly one gram, yet a full-grown male can top 90 kg.

A red kangaroo holds up the shield on Australia's coat of arms alongside which flightless bird?

An emu faces the red kangaroo across the shield, yet neither animal has ever been officially declared a national emblem of Australia.

Young male red kangaroos settle rank by rearing up to jab and grapple, a ritual named after which sport?

Boxing bouts between red kangaroos involve more wrestling than those of other kangaroo species, and can escalate to kicks from the powerful hind legs.

When moving slowly to feed, a red kangaroo plants which body part on the ground as a fifth limb?

Its tail acts as a crutch: below about 6 km/h the animal props itself on it and its front paws while both hind legs swing forward together.

A red kangaroo chased into a river or dam by a predator may use its front paws to do what?

Hold it underwater until it drowns: kangaroos often flee into waterways when a land predator threatens, then turn the tables on the pursuer.

A group of red kangaroos, usually females and young with a male or two, is known as what?

A mob is typically small, but where feed is plentiful red kangaroos have been seen gathering in crowds of up to 1,500.

To cool down in extreme desert heat, a red kangaroo licks saliva onto which part of its body?

Its forearms contain large veins, and saliva evaporating from the fur there cools the blood passing through.

Compared with cattle on a similar plant diet, red kangaroos release far less of which gas when digesting?

Methane is belched out in quantity by cattle; kangaroos make far less, about as much as horses for their size, because food moves through the stomach quickly.

The red kangaroo on Australia's coat of arms is said to symbolise progress because it cannot easily do what?

Walk backwards, in the popular telling: the forward-moving animal was tied symbolically to the motto Advance Australia on the first national arms.

How does a newborn red kangaroo, born with hind legs that are mere stumps, get into the pouch?

It climbs there alone, hauling itself through its mother's belly fur with its stronger front legs in about three to five minutes.

Adult male red kangaroos share which nickname with Australia's national men's basketball team?

Boomers is Australian slang for big male kangaroos, and the basketball side took it as a name; adult males of the species are also known as Big Reds.

Smaller and faster than the males, female red kangaroos go by which nickname among Australians?

Blue fliers is the name, earned by a smoky coat that contrasts with the rusty tones of most males; in some regions the colours are reversed.

Which type of plant made up 75 to 95 percent of the red kangaroo diet in a central Australian study?

Grasses dominate, especially fresh green growth; when it runs short, red kangaroos browse saltbush and other hardy shrubs instead.

A red kangaroo can go long periods without drinking because it gets most of its moisture from where?

The plants it eats supply the moisture, while its kidneys save more by reabsorbing water and producing highly concentrated urine.

Adult red kangaroos are too big for most hunters, but packs of which Australian predator sometimes kill one?

Dingoes mostly take young animals and smaller females: the largest males tend to ignore them, even while a hunt is under way nearby.

The Achilles tendons in a red kangaroo's hind legs make hopping efficient by working like what?

A rubber band is the usual comparison: the stretched Achilles tendon hands back so much energy that hopping faster costs barely any extra effort.

Two red kangaroos holding seashells support the coat of arms of which part of Australia?

Northern Territory made the red kangaroo its official animal emblem, and its arms are the only ones in Australia to show every emblem it has.

How can a red kangaroo mother nurse a newborn and a much older joey at once?

Each teat makes different milk, matched to the age of the youngster using it, and an older joey returns only to the teat it used in the pouch.

A red kangaroo's worn molars creep forward and drop out as new ones erupt behind, as in which giants?

Elephants replace their grinding teeth the same way; a kangaroo gets four sets of molars in a lifetime, and a very old one may have a single tooth left in each jaw.

Hide from harvested red kangaroos makes a thin, strong leather long prized by sportswear makers for which item?

Football boots made from it are light yet tough: split thin, the leather keeps far more of its strength than calf leather does.

A red kangaroo's hind legs move together when it hops, but kick one at a time during which activity?

Swimming brings out a dog-paddle of alternating kicks, overturning the old belief that a kangaroo's hind legs can only ever move as a pair.

Female red kangaroos that have stopped breeding often ovulate again within two weeks of which event?

Drought-breaking rain triggers ovulation, often within 14 days; late in a severe dry spell many males and females simply become infertile.

A red kangaroo pregnancy, which produces a newborn weighing about one gram, lasts only about how long?

One month, or 33 days to be exact, is all it takes; the real growing is done afterwards, during some 235 days in the pouch.

In the red kangaroo, the largest living marsupial, how does an adult male's weight compare with a female's?

Twice as heavy is typical: big males reach about 90 kg while females top out near 40 kg, and males also grow far broader shoulders.

With numbers in the millions, the red kangaroo sits in which category on the IUCN Red List?

Least Concern is its rating, and the species is so abundant that a regulated commercial harvest took more than half a million animals in 2023.

Until 1993, kangaroo meat could legally be sold in three eastern Australian states only as what?

Pet food was the only legal use in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria until 1993; South Australia had allowed people to eat kangaroo since 1980.

A red kangaroo has sat at the centre of which Australian military service's roundel since 1956?

The Air Force chose it over rival proposals that included the Southern Cross, a boomerang and a sprig of wattle.

Which paired features of a red kangaroo can each swivel independently through 180 degrees?

Its ears are large and can each turn through half a circle, while eyes set on the sides of the head give a field of view of roughly 300 degrees.

What is the name for a female red kangaroo's ability to put a pregnancy on hold until her pouch is free?

Embryonic diapause halts a tiny cluster of cells in the womb, so a breeding female is almost permanently pregnant except on the day she gives birth.

Male red kangaroos do not defend a home patch, so their fights are chiefly over which prize?

Mating rights are the prize: a dominant male keeps first claim on receptive females until a rival overthrows him, after which he tends to live alone.

The red kangaroo's genus, Osphranter, also contains which smaller relatives that favour rocky outcrops?

Wallaroos share the genus, and the common wallaroo can still interbreed with the red kangaroo, though the hybrids are sterile.

Which country listed the red kangaroo as a threatened species in 1974 and kept it listed until 1995?

United States law treated the species as threatened and restricted imports of its skins, yet by 1981 it was counted the most abundant of all kangaroos.

In one rangeland study, red kangaroos needed just 13 percent of the water required by which farm animals?

Sheep sharing the same country drank far more, and the kangaroos also ate fewer kinds of plants and ran a resting metabolism about 70% of theirs.

Red kangaroo numbers grew with the spread of farming, helped by which addition to the Australian landscape?

Man-made waterholes dug for livestock gave the animals reliable drinking points, though stock and rabbits also compete with them for feed.

On a red kangaroo's hind foot, the second and third toes are fused together to form what?

A grooming claw is the result, and the same fused pair of toes turns up across the wider order that includes koalas and wombats.

Which English naturalist, famed for his bird books, placed the red kangaroo in the genus Osphranter?

John Gould made the move in 1842, the year he finished a monograph on the kangaroo family; the genus was later demoted, then revived in 2015.

Unlike the coats of other kangaroos, a red kangaroo's fur is said to feel like which material?

Soft wool is the comparison: the fur is unusually dense and fine, which insulates the animal in both hot and cold weather.

In a behaviour also seen in wolf packs, a female red kangaroo may do what with another mother's joey?

Adopt it, a habit biologists call alloparental care; the list of species that do the same even includes a small fish, the fathead minnow.

A male red kangaroo, which can hit about 60 km/h, covers roughly what distance in one leap?

8 metres or a little more is the reach of a big male at speed, and the same animal can clear obstacles close to 3 metres high.

Red kangaroo meat, stocked by many Australian supermarkets, is notable for containing very little of what?

Fat makes up only about 2% of the meat, which comes entirely from wild animals taken by licensed shooters rather than from farms.