Latest Kangaroo Stories
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online An international team of researchers led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has completed a major review of the available evidence to conclude that most species of gigantic animals that once roamed the Australian continent disappeared before the arrival of humans. These findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and challenge the claim that humans were the primary cause of extinction for...
When, how and why modern humans first stood up and walked on two legs is considered to be one of the greatest missing links in our evolutionary history. Scientists have gone to the far ends of the earth – and the wonderful creatures in it - to look for answers to why we walk the way we walk. In the latest such search, researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa) have taken a closer look at bipedal kangaroos and wallabies and how they move compared...
While sequencing the DNA of a member of the kangaroo family for the first time, an international team of researchers believe they have identified the gene responsible for the creature's hop, Judith Burns of BBC News reported on Friday. The project, which is detailed in the latest issue of the journal Genome Biology, centers around the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii), a smaller species of kangaroo located on islands off the south and west coasts of Australia. According to Burns, this...
Mother kangaroos face higher health risks to carry and raise their young than their non-reproducing sisters; a new University of Melbourne study has shown.The study, led by Dr Graeme Coulson and Professor Mark Elgar from the Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne demonstrated for the first time that mother Eastern Grey Kangaroos almost double their food intake and significantly reduce their time spent resting in order to meet the nutritional needs of their baby."By increasing...
The thylacine had the head and body of a dog, but its striped coat resembled a cat and it carried its young in a pouch like a kangaroo. These enigmatic, iconic creatures of Australia and Tasmania have been given conflicting names such as the "marsupial wolf" and the "Tasmanian tiger."Researchers at Brown University may have discovered the answer as to what type of creature the extinct thylacine was. Bones of the thylacines, along with other dog-like and cat-like animals such as pumas,...
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- It's time to start planning travel to South Australia because starting on November 1 through December 31, 2010, the South Australia Tourism Commission and Qantas Airways have partnered to offer unlimited flights for two for one year to South Australia--the "WOW" state! Renowned for its unique blend of Wine, Outback, and Wildlife, one lucky traveler and a guest, who will be selected on January 15, 2011, will be able to fly to South Australia for one full...
MIRABEL, QC, March 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Kangaroo TV today announced that it has expanded its partnership with The Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). Last season, the Dolphins were the first NFL team to rollout some 5,000 hand-held Kangaroo TV wireless devices to their premium ticket holders. These devices substantially improved the in stadium experience of the fan. They deliver an immersive viewing experience, enriched by user selected instant replays, multiple...
A plague of kangaroos has caused thousands of dollars worth of damage after heavy rains swept through areas of Queensland forcing the marsupials to invade farmland that has been previously untouched by the majority of the kangaroo population.Queensland sheep farmer Stephen Tully told BBC that thousands of kangaroos are running rampant among his fields. The rains have brought the brown fields back to life and the lush grasses have lured the marsupials into the new fertile region.The grasses...
Environmentalists and animals rights activists were furious Friday when a group of eastern grey kangaroos were culled on one of Australia's race car tracks due to safety risks, according to an AFP report.The local council said it authorized the 140 eastern grey kangaroos to be shot on the mountain for the first time this year. The cull, carried out under license from the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service, has at least halved the areas kangaroo population, according to the NSW Government...
Bob Irwin, father of the late television personality and conservationist Steve Irwin, is calling on China to disallow importing kangaroo meat for consumption."We wouldn't eat your pandas, so please don't eat our kangaroos. Come and see them," Irwin said.He said that importing kangaroo meat to the Asian market would result in a dwindling kangaroo population, which could hurt Australia's tourism industry."The Chinese are one of our biggest visitors and kangaroos are one of their...
Latest Kangaroo Reference Libraries
Image Caption: Dendrolagus lumholtzi. Credit: Joseph Smit/Wikipedia Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) can be found in the Atherton Tableland Region in Queensland. It prefers a habitat within secondary rainforests, but can be found on the edges of eucalypt forests. Its scientific and common names were given in honor of Carl Sofus Lumholtz, a Norwegian explorer. Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo can reach an average body length between 1.5 and 2.1 feet with tail length of up to 2.4...
Merriam’s kangaroo rat, named after Clinton Hart Merriam , is a small rodent (about fourteen inches long) that has a pouch lined with fur that serves as food storage. These rats use their cheek pouches for convenient food storage when foraging. The kangaroo rat is named so because of their extremely long feet, similar to those of an actual kangaroo. Like a kangaroo, this rat will hop or jump as a means of travel, instead of running or scurrying. Because of this, the kangaroo rat has a...
The Parma Wallaby (Macropus parma), was a shy, cryptic creature of the wet forests of southern New South Wales, it was never common and, even before the end of the 19th century, it was believed to be extinct. In 1965 workers on Kawau Island (near Auckland) attempting to control a plague of introduced Tammar Wallabies (a widespread and fairly common species in Australia) were astonished to discover that some of the pests were not Tammar Wallabies at all, but a miraculously surviving population...
The Giant Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys ingens) is an endangered rodent species endemic to California. It is the largest of the kangaroo rats, measuring about 6 in (15 cm) long. This doesn't include its long, tufted tail. It is brown in color. Like other kangaroo rats it has a large head and large eyes. It also has long, strong hind legs with which it can hop at high speeds. The Giant Kangaroo Rat lives on dry, sandy grasslands and digs burrows in loose soil. It lives in colonies. The...
A wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod (Family Macropodidae). A wallaby is any macropod that isn't large enough to be considered a kangaroo and has not been given some other name. There is no fixed dividing line. In general, a wallaby is smaller and has a stockier build than a kangaroo. A wallaroo is any of a few species somewhat intermediate in size between a wallaby and a kangaroo. Very small forest-dwelling wallabies are known as pademelons (genus Thylogale) and dorcopsises...
