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The kangaroo
is part of the marsupial family which has all together
sixty-five species. Australia is considered as the land of
kangaroos as they are native from there. It seems that the word
kangaroo comes from the Australian aboriginal language, the
Guugu Yimidhirr, which at this was called gangurru, which was
referred to a grey kangaroo. On the 4 august 1770 the name was
first recorded by the Lieutenant James Cook. In the belief the
word means “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand”. Other words
for the male kangaroos are jacks, boomers or bucks and the
female are called jills, flyers or does. The young are usually
called joeys. There are three kangaroo species, the Red
Kangaroo, the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and the Western Grey
Kangaroo. The Red Kangaroo is the largest of all kangaroos and
one of the largest marsupials. It is a very large kangaroo. They
are mainly found in the dryland of the central part of
Australia. The Eastern Grey Kangaroo is quite easy to recognize
with its grey coat. The other names used for them are Forester
and Great Grey Kangaroo. They can attain a height of two meter
and a weight of sixty-six kg but the Red Kangaroo stays the
largest. The Western Grey Kangaroo is mostly found in the
southern part of Australia, in Murray Darling Basin, in New
South Wales, in Queensland and western Victoria. These kangaroos
were first noticed by Matthew Flinders when he landed on
Kangaroo Island in 1802; he killed a lot of them for food and
was sure they were Eastern Grey Kangaroos. In 1803 the French
explorers caught some of the Western Grey from Kangaroo Island
to bring them back to Paris where they placed in zoological
gardens. |
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