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Red Kangaroo
Australia's giant hopper — the largest marsupial alive, bounding across the outback and carrying its young in a pouch.
How to spot it
The largest living marsupial — a big male stands as tall as a person and is a rich reddish-brown, while females are often smoky blue-grey. It has huge, powerful hind legs, small forelimbs and a thick muscular tail used as a prop and a counterbalance.
Where it lives
The dry, open grassland and scrub of inland Australia. It is superbly suited to arid country, ranging widely to find fresh grass and resting in shade through the heat of the day.
What it eats
A grazer that lives on grasses and low plants and can go long stretches on very little water. It feeds mostly in the cool of the evening, night and early morning.
Behaviour & life
It travels by hopping — cruising economically at speed and clearing big distances in a bound. Females carry a tiny, jellybean-sized joey in the pouch for months. Groups called mobs gather where feed is good, and males box to settle dominance.
Conservation
Classed as Least Concern — red kangaroos remain abundant across Australia and are managed as a wild population. In India they are seen only in zoos.
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