56 Fun Facts About Kangaroo

A debunked legend says 'kangaroo' was an Aboriginal reply meaning what?

I don't understand, or in some tellings 'I don't know', is the legend; in fact gangurru was the Guugu Yimithirr name for a large kangaroo, as John Haviland confirmed in 1972 by recording it again from its speakers.

Kangaroos sometimes do what with grass they have already swallowed?

Chew it again: like cattle chewing the cud, kangaroos can bring swallowed grass back up, re-chew it and swallow it once more to finish digesting it.

The red kangaroo mainly lives in which part of Australia?

The dry inland plains are its stronghold: able to live on very little water, it ranges across the arid centre but is missing from the wetter, more fertile east coast and the northern rainforests.

Which structures in a kangaroo's hind legs store energy on landing and release it into the next hop?

Tendons stretch as the animal lands and then recoil like springs, supplying most of the energy for the following hop, which is why a kangaroo can cruise for long distances at little cost.

At birth, a kangaroo joey is about the size of what?

A lima bean is about the size of the blind, hairless newborn, which hauls itself through its mother's fur to the pouch using its forelimbs, the only part of it developed enough to work.

Roughly how long is a kangaroo pregnant before her tiny, undeveloped joey is born?

About 5 weeks is all the womb provides; the joey then spends months in the pouch, fastened to a teat, doing the growing that most mammals finish before birth.

A kangaroo mother suckling a newborn and an older joey together produces what?

Two different milks come from separate teats, each matched to its joey's stage of growth, so a newborn in the pouch and an older youngster can both be fed at once.

What is a female kangaroo's ability to put a pregnancy on hold until conditions improve called?

Embryonic diapause keeps a week-old embryo dormant while an older joey occupies the pouch; once that joey starts to leave, or a drought breaks, development resumes.

Which of these is a traditional term for a male kangaroo?

Boomer is one of several names for a male, along with buck, jack and old man, and it gave Australia's men's basketball team its nickname, the Boomers.

What is the usual collective noun for a group of kangaroos?

A mob has no fixed size: it swells or thins with the food on offer, and feeding in company gives the weaker animals some protection.

Which airline uses a bounding kangaroo as its logo?

Qantas first painted the kangaroo on its aircraft in 1944 for the long-haul service it called the Kangaroo Route, which earned the airline its nickname, the Flying Kangaroo.

Until 1993, kangaroo meat could be sold in most of eastern Australia only as what?

Pet food was the only legal market for it in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland until 1993; it is now sold in butchers and supermarkets and promoted as a healthy red meat.

When chased by a predator, kangaroos often flee into which terrain, where they are surprisingly capable?

Deep water: strong swimmers, kangaroos often head for a river or dam when chased, and a big one pursued into the water may use its forepaws to hold the predator under.

Studies of kangaroos walking slowly on all fours found that the tail works as what?

A fifth leg: the tail and the two short forelimbs take the animal's weight like a tripod while both hind feet swing forward together, a gait known as pentapedal walking.

Which naturalist on the Endeavour voyage first recorded the word 'kanguru' in his diary in July 1770?

Joseph Banks wrote down what he heard from Guugu Yimithirr speakers on the Endeavour River, where the damaged ship lay beached for repairs; their word gangurru named one kind of large kangaroo.

Who commanded HMS Endeavour in 1770, when its crew met kangaroos while repairing the ship in Queensland?

James Cook had run the ship aground on the Great Barrier Reef, throwing her guns overboard to float her off; she then lay beached for almost seven weeks while the hull was repaired.

Kangaroos are most active during which part of the day?

Dusk to dawn is when kangaroos move about and feed in the cool; they sit out the heat of the day resting in the shade.

Which extinct animal do palaeontologists consider a former major natural predator of kangaroos?

Thylacines, or Tasmanian tigers, disappeared from the mainland more than 3,000 years ago, possibly after the dingo arrived, which left the dingo as the kangaroo's chief wild predator.

Compared with cattle and sheep, kangaroos belch out far less of which digestive gas?

Methane is released in far smaller amounts than by cattle, one reason kangaroo meat is promoted as a greener choice, though a 2015 study confirmed that kangaroos do emit some every day.

What unusual thing happens to a kangaroo's molars as they wear down?

They shift forward and drop out at the front as fresh molars erupt behind them, so a very old kangaroo may have only its last two molars left to grind grass.

The red kangaroo now sits in the genus Osphranter, which it shares with which of these relatives?

Wallaroos share Osphranter with the red kangaroo: John Gould coined the genus, later zoologists folded it into a broader kangaroo genus, and it has since been restored.

Roughly how far can a big red kangaroo travel in a single flat-out leap?

About 9 m, on a par with the men's long jump world record of 8.95 m, is a bound kept for emergencies; a kangaroo travelling at its ordinary pace takes much shorter hops.

Male red kangaroos have red-brown fur, but the females are usually what colour?

Blue-grey females are nicknamed blue flyers, being smaller and faster than the males, though in some areas the females are reddish too.

How do red kangaroos go for long periods without drinking?

Their kidneys reabsorb water from urine, concentrating it so that little is lost, and the juicy plants they eat supply most of the moisture they need.

Besides the dingo, which bird of prey is one of the kangaroo's few natural predators?

Wedge-tailed eagles mostly take joeys, but a pair hunting together can occasionally bring down a full-grown kangaroo.

Kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, pademelons and the quokka all belong to which family?

Macropodidae's big kangaroos have coped well with farming, but several of the family's smaller members have died out or become endangered, probably through predation by introduced foxes.

How is the extinct giant short-faced kangaroo Procoptodon thought to have moved?

Walking upright on two legs is what a 2014 study of its limb bones suggested; at up to 240 kg, Procoptodon was probably too heavy to hop like its living relatives.

The boxing kangaroo flag became famous in 1983 flying above Australia II during which sporting contest?

The America's Cup had stayed with the New York Yacht Club for 132 years until Australia II won; a delighted Prime Minister Bob Hawke said any boss who sacked a worker for not turning up that day was a bum.

On the boxing kangaroo flag, what colour is the background behind the golden kangaroo?

Green and gold are Australia's sporting colours, and the red-gloved kangaroo was the mascot of Alan Bond's Australia II campaign; Bond owned the image and licensed it for mass production.

The boxing kangaroo, made famous by a 1983 sporting win, is now the official mascot of Australia's team at which event?

The Olympic Games: the Australian Olympic Committee bought the image from Alan Bond, and for Athens in 2004 a friendlier, redrawn kangaroo took over as team mascot from the little-seen Willy.

Which bird stands opposite the kangaroo as a supporter of the shield on Australia's coat of arms?

Emu and kangaroo have held up the shield since the first arms of 1908, yet neither has ever been designated an official animal emblem of Australia.

A popular explanation for the two animals on Australia's coat of arms is that neither can easily do what?

Walk backwards is the tradition: because neither animal easily goes into reverse, the pair came to symbolise progress and a nation moving forward.

Which monarch granted Australia's current coat of arms, kangaroo and all, in 1912?

George V authorised the present arms in 1912, replacing the first version, which Edward VII had granted only four years earlier; the new shield carries symbols of all six states.

Kangaroo Island, Australia's third-largest island, lost about half its area to what disaster in the summer of 2019–20?

Bushfires burned more than 2,000 square kilometres, about half the island, in January 2020, and the town of Parndana had to be evacuated as the flames advanced.

Which explorer named Kangaroo Island in 1802?

Matthew Flinders landed in March 1802 with a crew short of fresh meat; they killed 31 tame kangaroos, and he named the place 'Kanguroo Island' in gratitude for the feast.

Many capes and bays on Kangaroo Island still carry names given in 1802–03 by an expedition from which country?

France sent Nicolas Baudin's expedition, whose published chart called the whole island Île Decrès; that name did not last, but capes it named, such as Cape du Couedic, kept theirs.

Which blockbuster producer was behind the 2003 comedy Kangaroo Jack?

Jerry Bruckheimer had it shot as an R-rated gangster comedy called Down and Under, then, after poor test screenings, recut it as a PG family film built around the kangaroo.

In which sport does Australia's national team compete under the nickname the Kangaroos?

Rugby league's national side sailed for England in 1908 on its first tour as the Kangaroos; the trip lost so much money that the English hosts had to pay the players' fares home.

'Kangaroo care' began in Bogotá in 1978 to cope with a shortage of what?

Incubators were so overcrowded that Dr Edgar Rey Sanabria had mothers hold their premature babies skin-to-skin against the chest for warmth, like a joey in a pouch; the method is now used worldwide.

Despite its name, the phrase 'kangaroo court' is first recorded in the mid-1800s in which country?

United States papers were using the phrase by 1841, in a New Orleans report of lynchings; its origin is uncertain, and one suggestion is that such justice proceeds by leaps.

Only two tree-kangaroo species live in Australia, so where do most of the others live?

New Guinea's rainforests hold most of the roughly 14 species; their ancestors are thought to have been ground-dwelling kangaroos that climbed back into the trees.

Tree-kangaroos belong to which genus?

Dendrolagus species can move their hind legs one at a time, unlike other kangaroos, and grip with curved claws and spongy soles, which is what lets them climb.

In Winnie-the-Pooh, which character plots to snatch Kanga's baby when the kangaroos first arrive in the Forest?

Rabbit plans to hide the baby and slip Piglet into the pouch in his place, hoping to scare the newcomer; Kanga plays along and gives the protesting Piglet a bath.

The original Roo toy was lost in the 1930s, but which library displays the other original Pooh toys?

New York Public Library has shown them since 1987; the toys crossed the Atlantic in 1947 with Milne's American publisher, whose firm later donated them.

The airline term 'Kangaroo Route' refers to flights between Australia and which country?

United Kingdom: the long trip to London was flown as a chain of short stages, and those 'hops' gave the route its name in 1944.

In 2018 the Kangaroo Route finally went non-stop, on flights leaving from which Australian city?

Perth, on Australia's west coast, became the starting point in March 2018, when Boeing 787s began flying the 14,498 km route in one 17-hour leg, ending decades of refuelling stops along the way.

Which cartoon cat keeps mistaking Hippety Hopper, a baby kangaroo, for a giant mouse?

Sylvester takes the joey, escaped from a zoo or circus, for a giant mouse; in Pop 'Im Pop! (1950) he boasts of his mousing skills to his son, Sylvester Jr., before meeting the 'mouse' again.

On hot days, kangaroos cool themselves by licking which part of their body until it is wet?

Their forearms get a film of saliva that carries off heat as it evaporates; tree-kangaroos do the same, and red kangaroos also pant to shed heat.

Mature male western grey kangaroos are nicknamed 'stinkers' because of an odour resembling what?

Curry is how the mature males' strong odour is usually described; despite its name, the western grey also ranges east across southern Australia into New South Wales and Victoria.

The antilopine kangaroo lives in which part of Australia?

The tropical north is its range, from the Kimberley across the Top End to Cape York; unlike close relatives that live mostly alone, it gathers in sociable groups, much as the larger kangaroos do.

Which Australian coin shows five kangaroos on its reverse?

One dollar: the coin arrived in 1984 to replace the dollar note, which wore out quickly in heavy use, and Stuart Devlin's design of five kangaroos was chosen for its reverse.

A baby kangaroo is called a joey; which of these animals' young go by the same name?

Koala young are joeys too, the name used for marsupial babies in general; after about six months in the pouch a koala joey starts on leaves, helped by pap, a soft dropping from its mother that supplies gut bacteria.

The children's TV host Captain Kangaroo got his name from what feature of his costume?

Big coat pockets, roomy as a kangaroo's pouch, gave the Captain his name; Bob Keeshan, who played him for 29 years, had earlier been the original Clarabell the Clown on Howdy Doody.

Skippy, star of the 1960s TV series filmed in bushland near Sydney, was which species of kangaroo?

Eastern grey kangaroos, between nine and fifteen of them, shared the role, and Skippy's nimble 'hands' were often separate prop arms worked by crew members.

In Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, what was the job of Sonny's father, Matt Hammond?

Park ranger: widower Matt Hammond was head ranger of the fictional Waratah National Park; the real site, with the ranger headquarters built for filming, is now on the New South Wales State Heritage Register.

Kangaroos are thought to have evolved from ancestors resembling which modern marsupials?

Possums are the nearest living model: kangaroo ancestors are thought to have lived in the forest canopy, and their descendants took to open ground as Australia dried out and its forests shrank.