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Australian Kangaroo

The Kangaroo

The kangaroo flies - on the tail of every Qantas jet! The kangaroo - probably Australia's most recognised symbol. The kangaroo, truly a native of Australia. It is found nowhere else in the world. Qantas kangaroo logo. Qantas has used the kangaroo logo for many decades and has made the kangaroo one of the most well recognised Australian symbols. This is the new super jumbo that has just been delivered to Qantas - the Airbus A380.
Red Kangaroo in full flight. Kangaroos are plentiful in many areas of Australia. Kangaroos have flourished with the coming of agriculture
 There's the big Red, found by the millions all over the grassy plains of Australia's inland areas. The big Red is big - over six foot from nose to tail! Take a drive in outback Australia and you will see them, sometimes in mobs of hundreds. Watching them bound away through the scrub is a very graceful sight - they almost seem to flow over the ground.

There are actually thee different groups of kangaroo types, with a total of about 50 species. There are the big kangaroos and wallabies, including the tree kangaroos, and the rat kangaroos (not the same as the kangaroo rats found in North America, which are actually a type of rat - a rodent!), and the musk rat kangaroos.

But the best known are the big kangaroos, known as 'Boomers'. There's not much in the Australian outback that can give a fully grown 'boomer' a hard time. Perhaps a dingo or a wedge tailed eagle might.

There are so many of the big kangaroos in all parts of Australia that they are in no danger of extinction, though we have to be careful with some of the smaller ones. In fact, the big kangaroos have prospered since the arrival of settlers - so much so that careful harvesting has no negative effect on them.
Kangaroos are marsupials - which means a kangaroo mum carries her baby or 'joey' in a pouch - for around ten months. Even after the young 'roo leaves the pouch he continues to drink from mum for up to 18 months. Check out the joey in his mum's pouch - highlighted in the pic. Kangaroo and joey. Baby Kangaroos are born very small and immature. They crawl into their mother's pouch and are fed there until they are large enough to leave.

Outback Lace Up Gaucho Sheepskin UGG Boot from AussieSheepskin.com. Sheepskin UGG boots have been made in Australia for generations. These are a particularly attractive style of UGG boot, and are hand made in a cottage industry in Victoria, Australia

Kangaroos hopping down the main street? - it does happen, you know! Just after church one Sunday morning recently parishioners were quite surprised to see a kangaroo hopping down the middle of Potter St, in Geelong, Victoria. Geelong is the major regional city in Victoria with some 200 thousand people.

They reckon the 'roo had followed the river and then come into the suburbs and the city during a spell of some very dry weather. The council bylaws officer tells me its not that uncommon, especially in dry periods.

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