Close-up of a large adult Kangaroo, at Hartley's Crocodile Adventures wildlife sanctuary, Captain Cook Highway, Wangetti, Queensland, Australia.
The kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus: the red kangaroo, antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo, and western grey kangaroo. Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia. The Australian government estimates that million kangaroos lived within the commercial harvest areas of Australia in 2011, up from million one year earlier. As with the terms "wallaroo" and "wallaby", "kangaroo" refers to a paraphyletic grouping of species. All three refer to members of the same taxonomic family, Macropodidae, and are distinguished according to size. The largest species in the family are called "kangaroos" and the smallest are generally called "wallabies". The term "wallaroos" refers to species of an intermediate size. There is also the tree-kangaroo, another genus of macropod, which inhabits the tropical rainforests of New Guinea, far northeastern Queensland and some of the islands in the region. A general idea of the relative size of these informal terms could be: wallabies: head and body length of 45–105 cm and tail length of 33–75 cm; The dwarf wallaby (the smallest member) is 46 cm long and weighs kg; tree-kangaroos: from Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo body and head length of 48–65 cm, tail of 60–74 cm, weight of kg (16 lb) for males and kg (13 lb) for females; to the grizzled tree-kangaroo length of 75–90 cm (30 to 35 in) and weight of 8–15 kg (18–33 lb); wallaroos: the black wallaroo, the smallest by far, with a tail length of 60–70 cm and weight of 19–22 kg for males and 13 kg for females; kangaroos: a large male can be 2 m (6 ft 7 in) tall and weighs 90 kg (200 lb). Kangaroos have large, powerful hind legs, large feet adapted for leaping, a long muscular tail for balance, and a small head.
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Location: The kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In commo
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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