Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus)

Red Kangaroo overview

The red kangaroo is the largest kangaroo, the largest living marsupial and the largest native land mammal in Australia. Adult males are usually reddish-brown and can weigh more than twice as much as the smaller, often blue-gray females. Red kangaroos live in loose groups called mobs across the dry inland plains, resting in shade by day and grazing from dusk to dawn. They move by hopping on powerful hind legs, using the long, heavy tail for balance at speed and as a fifth limb when moving slowly. Numbers rise and fall sharply with rainfall and drought.

How Long Do Red Kangaroos Live?

Red kangaroos typically live 8–12 years in the wild and 16–20 years in zoos. A few wild animals reach about 20, but most die much younger: drought, food shortages and dingo predation kill many joeys and young adults, so the average life of a wild kangaroo is far shorter than its potential.

How Much Does a Red Kangaroo Weigh?

Adult red kangaroos weigh 18–90 kg (40–200 lb). The spread is wide because males are far bigger than females: males usually weigh 55–90 kg, while females weigh 18–40 kg. Males keep growing throughout life, so the oldest dominant males are the heaviest.

How Tall Is a Red Kangaroo?

A red kangaroo stands 1.0–1.6 m (3.3–5.2 ft) tall in its normal upright posture, and very large males can top 1.8 m when stretched up. Head-and-body length is 0.85–1.6 m, and the muscular tail adds another 0.65–1.2 m.

How Fast Can a Red Kangaroo Run?

Red kangaroos can hop at 56–70 km/h (35–43 mph) in short bursts. Their comfortable cruising speed is 20–25 km/h, which they can hold for long distances because elastic tendons in the hind legs store and return energy with every bound. A single leap can cover 8 m or more.

How Long Is a Red Kangaroo Pregnant?

A red kangaroo is pregnant for about 33 days. The newborn is around 2.5 cm long and weighs under a gram; it climbs unaided into the pouch, attaches to a teat and stays there for roughly 8 months before it starts to venture out.

What Do Red Kangaroos Eat?

Red kangaroos are herbivores that eat mainly green grasses, along with forbs and the leaves of shrubs such as saltbush. They feed mostly from dusk to dawn, have chambered stomachs that ferment tough plants, and can survive for long periods without drinking when fresh green feed is available.

Diet type: herbivore. Mostly green grasses, plus forbs and the leaves of low shrubs such as saltbush. Red kangaroos get much of their water from fresh vegetation and can go long periods without drinking.

Where Do Red Kangaroos Live?

Red kangaroos live on the dry grasslands, scrublands and desert plains of inland Australia. They prefer open country with scattered trees for shade and avoid the wetter forests of the east coast, the tropical far north and the southwest. They do not occur in Tasmania.

Are Red Kangaroos Endangered?

Red kangaroos are listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List with a stable population. They number in the millions, although counts swing widely with drought and rain. The species is protected by law, and commercial harvesting is allowed only under government quotas.

Least Concern

Red Kangaroo fun facts

• A female red kangaroo can have a joey at foot, a younger joey in the pouch and a paused embryo waiting in the womb all at the same time.
• A mother can produce two different kinds of milk at once, from separate teats, to suit joeys of different ages.
• Kangaroos cannot easily walk backward; at slow speeds they use the tail as a fifth limb in a movement called pentapedal walking.
• Males settle disputes by 'boxing': they grapple with the forearms and balance on the tail to kick with both hind feet.
• A newborn red kangaroo weighs less than a gram, tens of thousands of times lighter than its mother.

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Red Kangaroo FAQ

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