Facts about the Red Kangaroo (Desert Park Alice Springs NT - 23/07)

The male red kangaroo can get 1.80 meter tall and around 90 kg in weight.
The female is about 1.60 meter tall and up to 45 kg. These Kangaroos can
jump a distance of up to 11 meter in one hoop :-). There hooping movement is
highly efficient because it uses only 20% of their energy. When "hooping"
the kangaroo uses only the lower part of his body and very little amount of
muscles are neccessary.

The female red kangaroo can have 3 young in the same time and she produces
different milk formulas for the different age levels. She can have for
example one so-called "foot joey" that lives already outside of her "pocket"
and gets the strongest milk formula. In the same time she can have one joey
in her belly pocket that stays in there up to 8-9 months and it gets another
milk formula. And then there is already the new embryo of 33 days that is
like a size of a white bean.
The female foot joey stays with it's mother up to one year to learn from
her. The male foot joey leaves the mother earlier. Depending on the weather
conditions and food ressources a female kangaroo can delay the embryo
development apparently through her hormons.

During the day-time kangaroos are not active and they just rest and relax.
They remove the hot sand to get to the colder part and then they lay flat to
cool down there body. They eat at night because then there is more moisture
on the plants too. You can see them licking there forearms when they sit up
during the day. This is another method to survive the heat because they try
to cool down their blood that flows through the forearm venes.
Regarding the day temperature the kangaroo will decide if it shows its dark
back to the sun for heating up or if it will show his white belly.