Michael Guthrey, age 9, OF Twin Falls, Ida., for his question:
HOW LARGE DOES A KANGAROO GROW TO BE?
Kangaroo is a name given to several species of hopping mammals that live wild only in Australia. The kangaroo is the largest of all marsupials, a name given to animals where the female has a pouch on her abdomen in which she feeds and cares for her young.
An adult male kangaroo stands an average of about six feet tall and weighs about 100 pounds. But some of the largest can reach a height of seven feet and weigh more than 150 pounds. Female kangaroos are much smaller than males.
The size of an adult kangaroo is remarkable to note when you consider that a baby only measures one inch in length at the time of birth.
Kangaroos breed throughout the year. About a month after mating, the female gives birth to one Joey, the name given to a baby kangaroo.
Like the babies of all marsupials, the Joey is much less developed in its one inch length than the young of most other kinds of mammals. The eyes, ears and hind legs of a newborn Joey, for example, are all underdeveloped.
Immediately after birth, a Joey uses its forepaws to crawl unaided from the birth canal up into its mother's pouch. There it nurses on the mother's milk.
The baby first leaves the pouch at the age of six to eight months. But it often returns to feed or to escape from danger.
The Joey permanently leaves the pouch when it is between eight and 10 months old.
Largest of the kangaroos are the gray and red types. In the family there are about 40 smaller kinds. Some of the smaller types are found in New Guinea and on nearby islands, but most are found only in Australia.
Rat kangaroos are the smallest members of the family. They grow to be about the size of rabbits. Unlike other members of the kangaroo family, this type eats insects and worms.
Man and a wild Australian dog named the dingo are the kangaroos' only enemies.
For a long time, hunters killed millions of kangaroos for their hides and their meat. Hides were made into handbags and shoes and their meat was used for making dog food.
Australian rangers also killed large numbers of kangaroos because they claimed the animals reduced the grass supply for livestock. Scientific studies, however, have indicated that this type of claim is greatly exaggerated.
But since so many kangaroos were being killed, the government feared that the animal might become extinct. In 1973, Parliament passed a law banning the sale of live kangaroos or of kangaroo hides or meat to other countries.
A kangaroo can hop on its powerful hind legs at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. It can easily leap over obstacles six feet high.
When walking slowly, a kangaroo uses all four of its legs.