Kangaroos are both mammals and marsupials. They are mammals in that they are air-breathing, warm blooded ,furry, give birth to live fully formed young and produce milk.
They are marsupials because they carry their young around in pouches. When a baby kangaroo, or Joey, is born it is not much bigger than a grub. It is blind and has no arms or legs. Instinct alone propels the Joey into its mother's pouch where it feeds from its mother and remains for the first six months of its life before venturing out into the world.
At top speed a kangaroo will clock up 40 miles per hour and be capable of leaping 25 feet or more in one jump.
All told there are more than 50 different species of kangaroo, ranging from the tiny musky-rat kangaroo which tips the scales at about 200 grammes to the largest of them all, the red kangaroo which can attain an adult weight of 80 kg.
They are marsupials because they carry their young around in pouches. When a baby kangaroo, or Joey, is born it is not much bigger than a grub. It is blind and has no arms or legs. Instinct alone propels the Joey into its mother's pouch where it feeds from its mother and remains for the first six months of its life before venturing out into the world.
At top speed a kangaroo will clock up 40 miles per hour and be capable of leaping 25 feet or more in one jump.
All told there are more than 50 different species of kangaroo, ranging from the tiny musky-rat kangaroo which tips the scales at about 200 grammes to the largest of them all, the red kangaroo which can attain an adult weight of 80 kg.
