Wildlife
Red kangaroos are iconic symbols of the Australian outback, and are the largest living marsupials. Their powerful giant hindquarters enable them to leap along, covering a monstrous nine metres in a single bound. Red kangaroos have the ability to breed whenever conditions are right and twins can occur when food is abundant. A newborn weighs a mere 0.75 grams, and takes three minutes to make its way through its mother’s fur into the pouch, where it spends the next 70 days.
Did you know?
A red kangaroo can cover more than 10 metres in a single leap.
Scientific name: Macropus rufus
Rank: Species
In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.
Running cool
Unique adaptations help kangaroos to stay cool and outrun danger.
The red kangaroo is both the largest living marsupial and the largest mammal native to Australia.
Kangaroo adaptation
Resourceful kangaroos cope with Australia's extreme desert heat.
Air temperature in Australia's outback reaches over 50 degrees C at midday, and the scarcity of water makes every drop of moisture vitally precious. A military grade thermal imaging camera (ThermaCamP65), usually used for search and rescue missions, gives insight to the kangaroo's strategies for coping with these harsh desert conditions.
Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.
The Red kangaroo can be found in a number of locations including: Australia. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Red kangaroo distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Least Concern
Population trend: Stable
Year assessed: 2008
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
The red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest mammal native to Australia, and the largest surviving marsupial. It is found across mainland Australia, avoiding only the more fertile areas in the south, the east coast, and the northern rainforests.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.
Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.
This is Planet Earth
With Planet Earth Live hitting our screens, what better way to marvel at the wonders of nature than watching a fantastic collection of video highlights from the original Planet Earth series.
Nature's record breakers
Animal kingdom record breakers - how fast can a cheetah run, how heavy is an elephant and what's bigger than a dinosaur? Watch amazing video clips from the BBC archive and uncover the fascinating facts about our smallest primate, the longest stick insect and the most venomous snake.
BBC © 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
Desert
Mediterranean forest
Temperate grassland
Tropical grassland
Helpless young
Dry tolerant
Herbivorous
Adapted to jumping
Maternal care
Nocturnal
Nomadic
Polygynous
Social
Chemical communication
Sexual dimorphism
Heat tolerant
Visual communication
Viviparous