The Red
Kangaroo, Macropus rufus, is generally referred to as the
biggest Kangaroo still in existence. There were bigger ones in the past
including the Giant Short Faced Kangaroo, Procoptodon
goliah,which may have been ten
feet tall.
The male Red
Kangaroo can reach a little over six feet tall. Certainly, based on the average
maximum size, the Red Kangaroo is the biggest, although the Grey
Kangaroo sometimes produces individuals which are completely outside its
normal range, reaching eight feet tall.
The Females are
smaller than the males, as well as being less red and tending towards
blue in colour.
The Red Kangaroo
is not a threatened species.
Unlike many Australian animals, the Red Kangaroo has benefited
enormously from the European Settlement of Australia. Kangaroos need water to drink. As the Australian Graziers spread
out into the drier areas of the Australian Desert and Semi desert, they
provided water troughs for their sheep, cattle and other stock. The kangaroos drink at these as
well. It has been estimated that there are hundreds of times as many
Kangaroos in Australia now as there were before 1788 when the first
European settlers came.
The Red Kangaroo
is both a browser, eating the leaves etc. of shrubs and trees, and a
grazer, eating grasses and other low growing plants.
Kangaroos are
famous for their jumping and a Red Kangaroo jump can approach thirty
feet in length and ten feet in height.
The Red Kangaroo can move at over sixty kilometres an hour.
Kangaroos have
an elastic mechanism in their hind legs that enables them to use some of
the energy of the previous leap for their next one.
The Red Kangaroo
has few surviving enemies native to Australia, but there are several introduced
ones. One such predator is the
Dingo which was introduced several thousand years ago. In the last two centuries, other
types of Dog have also been brought to Australia.
The Kangaroo is not defenceless against these predators. Apart from trying to get away, the
Kangaroo can try to grab the Dog in its front paws and rip out its belly
with its powerful hind legs.
Kangaroos are good swimmers, and another strategy the Kangaroo will
occasionally use is to go into water, and try to drown the dog.
Kangaroo males
will sometimes fight each other.
Normally a wild Kangaroo is not dangerous to Humans, but special
circumstances can arise. For
two true accounts of danger to Humans, see "AModest Hero" and "TheUnlikely Hero".