The Red Kangaroo is a famous Australian animal. It moves by jumping on its long back legs. Its long, heavy tail helps it keep its balance. If chased, a large kangaroo can reach a speed of 40 kilometres an hour. One jump may be eight metres long and up to 3 metres high.
The Red Kangaroo is found mainly in the dry grasslands of Australia. It usually travels in small groups called ‘mobs’. Each mob has about 12 kangaroos.
When a baby Red Kangaroo is born, it weighs only 28 grams! After being born, it crawls through the mother’s fur to her pouch. In hard times, the mother kangaroo can stop the baby from being born until there is enough grass for her to eat.
The mother feeds the baby (called a ‘joey’) with milk from her body. The joey will spend at least a year in the pouch.
If a kangaroo is being chased and cannot run away, it will turn and fight. It will lean back on its tail and kick with its back legs. These legs are very, very strong and have large claws. The front legs are used to hold, not to box with, as you often see in cartoons.
Kangaroos can live for up to 20 years. A kangaroo never stops growing bigger, so an old kangaroo can be very large indeed. There are probably millions of kangaroos of all types in Australia. They were a very improtant food for Aborigines.
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