What is a kangaroo?
A: The kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods,
meaning "large foot").
Kangaroos are indigenous to where?
A: Australia and New Guinea.
The Australian government estimates that 42.8 million
kangaroos lived within the commercial harvest areas of Australia in
2019,
down from what?
A: 53.2 million in 2013.
As with the terms "wallaroo" and "wallaby", "kangaroo"
refers to a what?
A: A paraphyletic grouping of species.
All three refer to members of the same taxonomic
family, Macropodidae, and are distinguished according to what?
A: Size.
The largest species in the family are called
"kangaroos" and the smallest are generally called what?
A: "wallabies".
The term "wallaroos" refers to species of what?
A: An intermediate size.
There are also the tree-kangaroos, another type of
macropod, which inhabit what?
A:
The tropical rainforests of New Guinea, far northeastern Queensland and some
of the islands in the region.
This kind of kangaroo lives where?
A: In the upper branches of trees.
Kangaroos have large, powerful hind legs and large feet
adapted for what?
A: For leaping.
Kangaroos have a long muscular tail for what?
A: Balance.
Like most marsupials, female kangaroos have a what?
A: A pouch called a marsupium in which joeys complete postnatal development.
Because of its grazing habits, the kangaroo has
developed specialized what?
A: Teeth that are rare among mammals.
Its incisors can crop grass close to the ground and its
molars do what?
A: Chop and grind the grass.
Since the two sides of the lower jaw are not joined or
fused together, the lower incisors are farther apart, giving the kangaroo a
what?
A: A wider bite.
The silica in grass is abrasive, so kangaroo molars are
ground down and they move forward in the mouth before they eventually what?
A: Fall out and are replaced by new teeth that grow in the back.
This process is known as polyphyodonty and, amongst
other mammals, only occurs in what other
animals?
A: Elephants and manatees.
The large kangaroos have adapted much better than the
smaller macropods to what?
A: Land clearing for pastoral agriculture and habitat changes brought to the
Australian landscape by humans.
Many of the smaller species are rare and endangered,
while kangaroos are what?
A: Relatively plentiful.
Wild kangaroos are shot for what?
A: Meat, leather hides, and to protect grazing land.
Kangaroo meat has perceived health benefits for human
consumption compared with traditional meats due to what?
Kangaroos are often colloquially referred to as what?
A: "Roos".
Male kangaroos are called bucks, boomers, jacks, or old
men; females are does, flyers, or jills; and the young ones are what?
A: Joeys.
What is the collective noun for a group of kangaroos?
A: A mob, court, or troupe.
The red kangaroo is the largest surviving what?
A: Marsupial anywhere in the world.
Where do the highest population densities of the red
kangaroo occur?
A: In the rangelands of western New South Wales.
Red kangaroos are commonly mistaken as the most
abundant species of kangaroo, but eastern greys actually have what?
A: A larger population.
A large male can be how tall?
A: 2 metres (6 ft 7 in).
The first kangaroo to be exhibited in the Western world
was an example shot by whom?
A: John Gore, an officer on Captain Cook's ship, HMS Endeavour, in 1770.
Kangaroos are the only large animals to use what as a
means of locomotion?
A: Hopping.
Kangaroos have single-chambered stomachs quite unlike
those of cattle and sheep, which have what?
A: Four compartments.
They sometimes regurgitate the vegetation they have
eaten, chew it as cud, and then what?
A: Swallow it again for final digestion.