KANGAROOS

Kangaroos are Australian mammals, and they are also marsupials.  A marsupial is an animal that carries its young in a pouch. 

The red kangaroo is the largest marsupial in the world.  They can reach a weight of 90 kg.  The kangaroo moves by hopping.  They hop on their powerful hind legs and use their tails for balance and for steering. They can hop at speeds of up to 60 km an hour. 
A Red Kangaroo can leap 8 metres and jump 3m high.

Kangaroos have very good eyesight but only when an object is moving.  They also have excellent hearing, and they can swivel their ears in all directions to pick up sounds. Kangaroos are grazing herbivores.  They eat grass and leaves.  Kangaroos need very little water to survive.  Most kangaroos move about at night looking for food and rest when it is hot during the day. Kangaroos are social animals that live in groups or `mobs'. The mob can sometimes be made up of 100 kangaroos.

Baby kangaroos are called `joeys'. Kangaroos usually have one joey each year.  

Joeys are the size of a jellybean when they are born. They are pink, blind and hairless. They crawl all the way in to their mother's pouch and attach to a teat. The baby remains continuously attached to the nipple for 120-130 days as it grows. Then it is more active and peeps out of the pouch. A young red kangaroo joey first gets out of the pouch at about 198 days of age, but only a few minutes of the day are spent out at this age.

The joey remains in the pouch for nine months and continues to suckle until twelve to seventeen months of age.   Kangaroos can have 3 babies at one time. One becoming mature and just out of the pouch, another developing in the pouch and one embryo in pause mode* (not born) There are 4 teats in the pouch, and each provides different milk for the different stages of development of each baby.

*If there is a drought or no food, the new embryo does not develop.

1. Read the text and find words which mean:

1. An animal that has a pouch for its young ___________________________

2. Baby kangaroo ________________________________

3. Back legs _____________________

4. To feed on milk from mother's breast or udder _______________________

5. A nipple ______________

6. Without stopping ______________________

7. A group of kangaroos __________________

8. To turn round __________________

9. An animal that feeds on grass and plants ______________________

10. Change and growth __________________________

2. Fill the gaps with the best word:

1. What was the baby's _______________ at birth?

2. He ________________ 2.4 kilograms.

3. 
   I wish they'd stop that awful noise. It's been going on ____________ since 6 o'clock this morning.

4. The car company is ____________________ a new type of engine.

5. The clever little dog can walk on its ____________ legs.

6. Cows are ________________.

7. The cows are __________________ in the paddock.

8. She ___________________ round in her seat when she heard a voice behind her.

9. The truck can carry huge loads. It has a very __________________ motor.

10. Although he is an adult he acts like a child. His behaviour is very________________

Answer Key:

1. Read the text and find words which mean:

1. Marsupial

2. Joey

3. Hind legs

4. Suckle

5. Teat

6. continuously

7. mob

8. swivel

9. herbivore

10. development

grazing powerful weighed developing immature herbivores hind weight continuously swivelled

2. Fill the gaps with the best word:

1. Weight

2. Weighed

3. Continuously

4. Developing

5. Hind

6. Herbivores

7. Grazing

8. Swivelled

9. Powerful

10. immature

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