Kangaroos

The first European to see the kangaroos was the Dutch navigator Pelsart in Australia 1629. He saw a herd of animals fleeing his head like a dog, huge jumps. When he finally got back to Europe, he described these strange creatures. Other adventurers after him confirmed his report. And so the existence of these Australian animals became known in Europe. But their name came from Captain James Cook, the famous English explorer who wrote in his journal in 1770, in Australia: “(This animal) has the light color of a mouse, the build of a greyhound and quile the appearance of that dog, with a long tail, which he carries in the same manner . . . except for his way of walking or running, which is like the leaping of a hare or a deer.” He asked local Australians the name of this surprising animal. The aborigines answered in their language, “Can ga ru,” meaning (more or less) I don t understand. Cook took this as being an answer to his question, and the name kangaroo has been used ever since .
The natives’ name for the true kangaroo is walaru or wallaroo and they have retained it. These are the large kangaroos. Those that Cook had seen were wallabies, the smaller kangaroos. But whether large or small, and there are a number of very different species, all of the animals that we call kangaroos belong to the family of marsupials. (Most marsupials, except the opossums, are found only in the southern hemisphere.)

The name marsupial comes from the Latin word for “pouch,” and was given these animals because in almost all, the females have an abdominal pouch in which their young pass the first months of their life. Even after they have started to come out and look for their own food, they still use their mother’s pouch as a shelter from danger. This pouch contains the teats at which the young feed for several months. When the little kangaroos are born, the mother licks a path on the hairs of her abdomen up to the pouch, which they can then find with ease. The young kangaroos, or joeys, continue using their mother’s pouch until they outgrow it. The female usually gives birth to one, but sometimes two, young.

It is thought by some scientists that kangaroos lived in trees originally. It is not known how or why they came down to the ground to live. However, one group, the tree kangaroos, have returned to life in the trees, sleeping and feeding there. Kangaroos, unlike many other animals, have no lairs or burrows.  They rest on their powerful hind legs, and use their tails for additional support. An adult great grey kangaroo male may measure almost seven feet from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, and can weigh over two hundred pounds. Although it is hard to keep the big kangaroo in captivity, there are many in zoos throughout the world. They have even been bred in some zoos. The tree kangaroos are not over three feet in length. Unlike the terrestrial kangaroos, their front and hind legs are almost equal in size. Their big strong tails are used as rudders when they jump to the ground from the trees in which they live, sometimes from a height of sixty or seventy feet.

The best-known wallabies, because they are the most apt to be seen in captivity, are probably the rock wallabies. They vary in size; there are several species. The soles of their hind paws are protected by a pad that keeps them from slipping. In Australia they can be seen in rocky areas running and leaping, searching for the vegetation they feed on, such as leaves, grass, roots, and bark. Nothing is more graceful than a wallaby’s leap; even the smallest can make very great jumps.

Foxes and Dogs have been introduced into Australia, the kangaroos have insidious enemies. They escape by jumping, and do not hesitate to jump into trees, using their front paws, like velvet-covered hands, to hold on to the branches. They may spend long hours during the day sleeping in the fork of a tree. Rat kangaroos feed on grass and roots and are sometimes a nuisance to farmers. They are about the size of rabbits. They use their long tails to carry grasses with which they build their nests. They are also preyed upon by the foxes which were brought to Australia by the early settlers.

Kangaroo Photos