There are more than 50 different kinds of kangaroos in the world today. The smallest ones are only five centimeters tall but the biggest are more than two meters. Kangaroos cannot walk or run. They jump. The best time to see kangaroos is the evening and early morning. They spend the daytime in the shade.
Straight after they are born, the joeys (baby kangaroos), which are only about two-and-a-half centimeters long, have to drag themselves to their mother’s . They find their way there by the pattern of their mother’s hairs. They stay in the pouch they are eight months old. After that, they leave home . Sometimes the joeys aren’t too on making their way in the big wide world. A 50 pound joey, for example, was once found still living in its mother’s pouch.
Have you ever why these animals are called “kangaroos”? Well, according to one story, when Captain Cook landed in Australia and heard the aborigines calling these animals “Kangooroo,” he wrote the name down as “kangaroo.” That’s how this animal got its name.
