Other than the Great Barrier Reef and a multitude of creepy, crawly dangerous animals, Kangaroos are probably one of the only things you actually know about Australia. Also Koalas and the horribly morbid 90’s catch phrase “The dingo ate my baby!”.
There are a few reasons that Kangaroos are synonymous with Australia. First off, they’re all over the place, tens of millions of them roaming the country in mobs. Literally (a group of Kangaroos is actually called a mob), and their babies are called joeys, and the adult males box and kick each other to establish dominance. Talk about fun animals.
Kangaroos are the biggest of the marsupials, and there are four large species that are spread across the continent. Red Kangaroos, Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroos, and lastly the only species with an interesting name, the Antilopine Kangaroo. The most notable characteristic of Kangaroos is the way that they hop around the countryside, which is a surprisingly effective form of locomotion. If you have the right legs for it. Roos can hop over 20’ in a single bound, and sprint - or whatever the fast hopping equivalent of a sprint is - at over 30mph. Nearly three times faster than Olympic sprinters!
The only real challenge in seeing these unique animals is in getting yourself Down Under in the first place.
Australia