ABC Wednesday, K for Kangaroo.

These photos are "borrowed" from Wikipedia.


The most remarkable animal existing in Australia, is the kangaroo, which is a marsupial. It belongs to the family of Macropodidae(macropods means "large foot").
Kangaroos are much bigger than wallabies, which are related to them. The Red Kangaroo is the largest member of the kangaroo family. I was not so fortunate to meet the Red Kangaroo, but I saw plenty of wallabies. Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia.Therefore the kangaroo has become a national symbol of Australia. Coming to Australia I flew in a Qantas plane, recognizable by the red kangaroo painted on its tail.The kangaroo is important to the Australian culture.

The big male Red Kangaroo is big indeed! It measures 1.8m while standing up, and it can weigh 85 kg.

Kangaroos and wallabies can be found in many parts of the country, such as hot, dry deserts, grassy plains but also forests, where there is enough to eat. They have sharp front teeth and eat mainly grass and leaves. A friend of my daughter's told us that she once saw some wallabies eating her bananas. The tallest of them
picked them and then divided them among the others of the "mob"!



 

Photos from the book "Kangaroos"by Christine Butterworth

When a baby is born, it is still nothing more than a fetus. It is blind, pink and hairless. It crawls into its mother's pouch and starts sucking one of its mother's nipples. The joey( baby) stays in the pouch until it has grown fur and can keep itself warm.Then it leaves the pouch for a short time. It returns in the pouch when it gets hungry or in case of danger. When the joey gets bigger it can only put its head inside the pouch to drink.

Photos taken from the book"Kangaroos"by Christine Butterworth.

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with K.