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60 free Kangaroo trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
59 free Kangaroo trivia questions with answers. Kangaroos are the animal everyone can draw and almost nobody really knows. This quiz goes past the postcard: how a joey the size of a lima bean crawls into the pouch, why a mother can put an embryo on pause, how the tail works as a third leg, and why kangaroos burp almost no methane while cattle do. It covers all four big species (red, eastern grey, western grey and antilopine), the tree-kangaroos of New Guinea, and the extinct giants that walked instead of hopped. Then it turns to the kangaroo as a symbol: the coat of arms, the Qantas tail, the boxing kangaroo flag on Australia II, Skippy, Kangaroo Jack, Captain Kangaroo and Roo from Winnie-the-Pooh. Questions run from easy ones for kids to a few that will stump a zoologist. Every answer has been checked against a primary or encyclopaedic source, so the facts are safe to repeat.
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Q 01The English word 'kangaroo' comes from gangurru, a word in which Aboriginal language?
Guugu Yimithirr
Guugu Yimithirr is spoken around Cooktown in far north Queensland, where Cook's crew first heard the word in 1770. It originally referred to one particular grey species rather than to all kangaroos.
Q 02Which animal is the largest surviving marsupial in the world?
Red kangaroo
A big male can stand two metres tall. Wombats and Tasmanian devils are marsupials too, but neither comes close.
Q 03A large male red kangaroo can weigh roughly how much?
90 kg (200 lb)
That is about the weight of an adult man, packed onto an animal that can still clear nine metres in a single bound.
Q 04Over short distances, kangaroos can reach top speeds of up to about what?
70 km/h (43 mph)
Their comfortable cruising pace is only about 20-25 km/h, but a startled kangaroo can briefly match a car on a suburban road.
Q 05Roughly what share of a hopping kangaroo's potential energy is stored in its elastic tendons?
70 percent
The tendons work like springs, which is why hopping faster costs a kangaroo surprisingly little extra energy.
Q 06At birth, a kangaroo joey is about the size of what?
A lima bean
The blind, hairless newborn then crawls unaided through its mother's fur to reach the pouch.
Q 07How long is a kangaroo's gestation before the tiny joey is born?
About 5 weeks
Most of a joey's development happens in the pouch rather than the womb, which is why the pregnancy is so short.
Q 08A joey usually stays in its mother's pouch for roughly how long?
About 9 months
Western grey joeys can spend anywhere from 180 to 320 days inside before hopping out for good.
Q 09What is a female kangaroo's ability to pause an embryo's development called?
Embryonic diapause
It usually happens during drought or where food is scarce, so the next joey arrives when conditions improve.
Q 10Which of these is a traditional term for a male kangaroo?
Boomer
Males are also called bucks, jacks or old men, while females are does, flyers or jills.
Q 11What is the usual collective noun for a group of kangaroos?
A mob
Court and troupe are also recorded, but mob is the everyday Australian word.
Q 12Which airline uses a bounding kangaroo as its logo?
Qantas
The 'Flying Kangaroo' has been on Qantas tails since 1944 and has been redrawn several times since.
Q 13Kangaroo meat is prized for being lean. Roughly what percentage of it is fat?
About 2 percent
It is also high in protein, which is why it is marketed as a healthy alternative to beef and lamb.
In 2019 the Australian government estimated how many kangaroos lived in commercial harvest areas?
Q 21Unlike cattle and sheep, kangaroos release virtually none of which digestive gas?
Methane
Their gut bacteria turn the hydrogen by-product of fermentation into acetate instead, which the animal can use for energy.
Q 22What unusual thing happens to a kangaroo's molars as the teeth wear down?
They shift forward and drop out
Grinding tough grass wears the front molars down first, so fresh teeth from the back move up to replace them.
Q 23What is the scientific name of the red kangaroo?
Osphranter rufus
42.8 million
That is well over one kangaroo per Australian resident, and the count covers only the harvest zones.
Q 15When chased, kangaroos and wallabies often flee into which terrain, where they are surprisingly capable?
Deep water: strong swimmers
A cornered kangaroo in water may even try to hold a pursuing dog under, a tactic sometimes reported in Australia.
Q 16Research on how kangaroos walk found that the tail does what?
Acts as a third leg that pushes the body along
When walking slowly on all fours, the tail provides as much propulsive force as the front and hind legs combined.
Q 17Which member of Cook's Endeavour voyage first recorded the word 'kanguru' in his diary in July 1770?
Joseph Banks
Banks was the expedition's wealthy young botanist and later ran the Royal Society for over 40 years.
Q 18Who commanded HMS Endeavour in 1770, when Europeans first described kangaroos during repairs?
James Cook
The ship had struck the Great Barrier Reef and was patched up on the bank of what is now the Endeavour River at Cooktown.
Q 19Roughly what share of animal-vehicle collisions in Australia involve kangaroos?
Nine in ten
Kangaroos are most active at dawn and dusk, when drivers see them least well.
Q 20Which extinct animal do palaeontologists consider a former major natural predator of kangaroos?
Thylacine
The thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was itself a marsupial; the last known one died in Hobart Zoo in 1936.
It was long listed as Macropus rufus before the genus Osphranter was revived for the red and the wallaroos.
Q 24How far can a male red kangaroo cover in a single leap?
8–9 m (26–30 ft)
Those bounds can also reach up to three metres off the ground, comfortably clearing a fence.
Q 25Male red kangaroos have red-brown fur, but the females are usually what colour?
Blue-grey
The colour difference is so marked that bush slang calls the females 'blue flyers'.
Q 26How do red kangaroos manage to go for long periods without drinking?
Their kidneys reabsorb water from urine
They also get much of their moisture from fresh green grass and forbs, and rest in shade through the heat of the day.
Q 27Along with dingo packs, which bird of prey can occasionally kill an adult red kangaroo?
Wedge-tailed eagle
A pair of wedge-tails hunting together can bring down a full-grown animal; joeys are far easier prey.
Q 28The kangaroo family's scientific name comes from Greek words meaning what?
Large foot
Most macropods have very long, narrow hind feet, from the tiny quokka to the largest reds.
Q 29Kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, pademelons and the quokka all belong to which family?
Macropodidae
There are 63 recognised living species in the family, native to Australia, New Guinea and nearby islands.
Q 30How is the extinct giant short-faced kangaroo Procoptodon thought to have moved?
Walking upright on two legs
Procoptodon goliah stood about 2.7 metres tall and weighed up to 240 kg, far too heavy to hop efficiently.