Tag:wallabies

kangaroo on beach

Kangaroos: The Iconic Symbol of Australia’s Wildlife

Australia is often associated with the image of kangaroos hopping across the horizon or on a beach. Just like the koala, the kangaroo is a global icon of Australia. They are prominently featured on Australia’s coat of arms alongside the emu, and the flying kangaroo serves as the emblem of the national airline. The animals represent a nation that is constantly moving forward, as they are unable to walk backwards.

These hopping macropods (the name means big foot)  are the world’s largest marsupials. They are native to Australia and the offshore islands of Tasmania and Kangaroo Island, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. Varieties of Kangaroo include the eastern grey kangaroo, red kangaroo, western grey kangaroo, common and black wallaroo and antilopine kangaroo, as well as fourteen species of the Macropus genus, called Wallabies. Overall there are 45 varieties of kangaroo.

Kangaroos in outback NSW
Kangaroos in Outback NSW

Male kangaroos are called bucks, boomers, jacks or old men.  Females are flyers or jills.  Their young are called joeys, and a group of ‘roos is a mob, court or troop.

Appearance

Kangaroos are marsupials with large feet and powerful hind legs, enabling them to travel at 70 km/h and jump more than 9 metres in a single bound. In addition, their small front legs and long, powerful tail provides balance when jumping.  The red kangaroo is the tallest; the males can grow up to 2 metres tall, weigh 140 kg and is 3 metres long from nose to tip of the tail, which they use like a fifth leg.

Swamp Wallaby, Qld. kangaroos of australia
Swamp Wallaby, Qld.

In contrast, the smallest kangaroo is the musky rat-kangaroo at only 40 to 50 cm.  Kangaroos have exceptional hearing and can swivel their ears to pick up sounds.  They also have excellent eyesight but only react to moving objects. Their coat can be red, grey or light to dark brown, depending on the species. Kangaroos are superb swimmers and use their tails to propel them through the water and paddle with their front legs.  They swim to avoid predators and can use their forepaws to drown pursuers.

Behaviour

Young kangaroos will playfight, but the fighting becomes more serious as they age. Fighting is either over access to the females, to establish dominance and move up the mob hierarchy or against enemies. They use their forelegs to grip an enemy, rock back on their tail and swiftly drop their huge, sharp, clawed hind feet.  This action has been known to disembowel dogs and humans.

Young kangaroos play fighting
Young ‘roos play fighting.

When chased by hunters with dogs, they often head for water and have been known to turn and hold down on the dog with their forefeet in an attempt to drown it. When alarmed, a kangaroo will hiss and growl.  The females make clicking noises when communicating with their young.  Males also ‘chuckle’ during courtship.

Reproduction

Like all marsupials, kangaroos have pouches where the joeys are reared.  The pouches also contain four teats producing two different types of milk.  A newborn is attached permanently to one (neonatal)  teat and receives a protein-rich fluid.  The other teats produce ‘mature’ milk for the joey at her feet. Grey kangaroos allocate more protein to sons than daughters.

kangaroos - joey in pouch
Joey in pouch

Kangaroos produce one young annually.  The joey is born at a very immature stage, is only about 2 cm long, and weighs less than a gram.  Immediately following birth, it crawls up the mother’s body, enters her pouch, and attaches itself to the neonatal teat.  The teat then enlarges to hold the joey in place.  The joey leaves the pouch after nine months but continues to suckle until twelve months.

female kangaroo checking on joey in pouch
female kangaroo checking on Joey in the pouch

Within a few days of giving birth, the females enter heat again, mate and conceive.  However, after one week of developing, the embryo enters a dormant state.  This dormancy remains until the young Joey leaves the pouch.  Development of the embryo will then resume, and the female gives birth after a 30-day gestation, and the cycle starts all over again. Female kangaroos are literally permanently pregnant!

Diet and Habitat

Kangaroos are herbivores and graze on grass, young shoots, leaves of heath plants, and grass trees. They get most of their water from the plants they eat; thus, they require very little water to survive and can go months without drinking water. They also conserve water by only being active when the weather is cooler.  During the day, they will rest in the shade, coming out to eat in the late afternoon and at night when it’s much cooler. They can be found across woodlands, forests, plains and savannahs of Australia. Like cattle, kangaroos regurgitate their food.  They chew it twice before it passes into their chambered stomach.  

kangaroos are herbivores and left handed
Kangaroos are left-handed
Population

The current kangaroo population in Australia is estimated to be around 50 million.  To slow the rising population of kangaroos, which has doubled in the last six years, scientists are asking people to eat more kangaroo meat (which has been legal to consume since 1993). The rise in population is attributed to an abundance of food after three years of heavy rains due to La Niña.  Concerns are a loss of diversity if the population keeps growing.  Calls for a kangaroo cull are growing. Kangaroos have only three natural predators – dingoes, humans and wedge-tail eagles. Unlike many species, European settlement has actually benefited their numbers. 

small mob of kangaroos
A small mob of roos

Settlers cleared vast forest areas and put in bores, dams and tanks, providing permanent water resources and abundant pasture grasses.  Coupled with the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger and the dingo fence, they have become overabundant in some areas. As a result, there are now more kangaroos than people in Australia.

Caution Required

Kangaroos may look cute and friendly, and some are quite tame as they have become used to humans as they encroach on suburbia. But they are still wild animals, and not all are friendly and docile or as ‘smart’ as the star of the 1960s television show ‘Skippy’. Some have been known to attack humans and dogs. 

kangaroo
friendly young kangaroo

While most attacks aren’t serious, in 1938, a New South Wales man died from injuries he received protecting his dogs.  This year, in Western Australia, a 77-year-old man died after being attacked by the western grey kangaroo he had hand raised from a joey.  Kangaroos are protected under federal conservation laws, and it is an office to harm or keep them as pets.

© Bevlea Ross