Kangaroos are large marsupials that are found only in Australia. They are identified by their muscular tails, strong back legs, large feet, short fur and long, pointed ears.

The kangaroo moves by hopping. They hop on their powerful hind legs and use their tails for balance and for steering. Even though kangaroos jump with their legs moving together, they are able to kick each leg separately when swimming. A Red Kangaroo can leap as far as 25 feet (8 m) and 10 feet high (3m).

Kangaroos are famous for their means of locomotion: hopping! They can reach speeds of 60kph, clearing more than 8m with a single hop! Their muscular tail is used for balance when hopping, and as another limb when moving about. They also use their tail when swimming; that’s right – kangaroos are good swimmers!

In hopes of shedding more light on the complexity of these distinctive marsupials, here are just a few lesser-known facts about kangaroos.

• Kangaroos Are the Largest Marsupials on Earth.
• They Come in Many Shapes and Sizes.
• Most Kangaroos Are Left-Handed.
• A Group of Kangaroos Is Called a Mob.
• Some Kangaroos Can Hop 25 Feet.

There are very few records of kangaroos attacking humans without provocation; however, several such unprovoked attacks in 2004 spurred fears of a rabies-like disease possibly affecting the marsupials. The only reliably documented case of a fatality from a kangaroo attack occurred in New South Wales in 1936.

Kangaroos have large powerful hind legs, large feet designed for leaping, a long muscular tail for balance, and a small head. They are the only large animals to use hopping as a means of locomotion. Kangaroos have few natural predators. One of the major natural predators, the Thylacine, is now extinct.

The fur is short, red to brown in colour, fading to a pale colour below and on the legs. Females are smaller than males and are a blue-grey colour with a small amount of brown, pale grey below, although arid area females are coloured like males. The kangaroo has long, pointed ears and a squared-off nose.

joeys

marsupials

The four species commonly referred to as kangaroos are: the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus), the eastern gray kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), the western gray kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus), and the antilopine kangaroo (Macropus antilopinus).

A kangaroo is an Australian marsupial. It belongs to the genus Macropus. The common name ‘kangaroo’ is used for the four large species, and there are another 50 species of smaller macropods.

Panthera leo

Homo sapiens

Carnivores

Felis catus

Acinonyx jubatus

Vulpes vulpes

Serpentes

Snake, (suborder Serpentes), also called serpent, any of more than 3,400 species of reptiles distinguished by their limbless condition and greatly elongated body and tail. All snakes lack external limbs, but not all legless reptiles are snakes.

Poisonous snakes include vipers, rattlesnakes, cobras, kraits, mambas, and the American coral snake. The black widow probably accounts for most of the neurotoxic syndromes that occur after spider bites.

Ophiophagus hannah

The main predator to the king cobra is the mongoose because the mongoose is immune to its venom. However, mongooses rarely attack king cobras unless they have to. Venom from a king cobra can kill a human in around 45 minutes.

King cobras are impressively venomous, large snakes native to Asia. They are called king cobras because they can kill and eat cobras.

about 6 kg

The lethality of venom depends on a combination of its potency, the volume delivered and the size of the victim. A king cobra bite can kill a human in 15 minutes and a full-grown elephant in a few hours.

The saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) may be the deadliest of all snakes, since scientists believe it to be responsible for more human deaths than all other snake species combined. Its venom, however, is lethal in less than 10 percent of untreated victims, but the snake’s aggressiveness means it bites early and often.

The ventral scales or the underside colouration of this species can be grey, yellow, tan, brown, reddish or black. Dorsal scales of the Indian cobra may have a hood mark or colour patterns. The most common visible pattern is a posteriorly convex light band at the level of the 20th to 25th ventrals.

Their venom is not the most potent among venomous snakes, but the amount of neurotoxin they can deliver in a single bite—up to two-tenths of a fluid ounce—is enough to kill 20 people, or even an elephant.

What is the biggest snake in the world?

• The largest snakes in the world belong to the python and boa families.
• The reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus) is the longest snake in the world, regularly reaching over 6.25 metres in length.

It depends on species: How long a snake lives varies from species to species. But a rule of thumb (with lots of exceptions) is that the larger a snake can grow, the longer it can live. Many colubrids have a life span of between 15 and 25 years and smaller species live for 5 to 10 years.