Gregory's Kangaroo Report

Kangaroos at Trial Bay Campground ~ South West Rocks

This joey is having some breakfast.

We saw four kangaroos this morning, two mothers and their joeys

Gregory wrote this report prior to our departure for New Zealand and Australia. He used books from the Henderson County Library (in North Carolina where Grandma and Grandpa Williams live) and he did research on the Internet. He first made a web (graphic organizer), then he wrote a sloppy copy, we did some editing, and then he wrote this final draft to publish.

Kangaroo

By Gregory Williams

The kangaroo is a marsupial, a mammal that has a pouch. Some other kinds of Australian marsupials are the koala, Tasmanian devil and the wombat. The only marsupial native to North America is the opossum.

There are 60 different kinds of kangaroos. Some of the kinds are the yellow-tailed tree kangaroo, the red kangaroo and the grey kangaroo. Kangaroos have very strong hind legs and sharp claws. The kangaroo has hair on the outside of its body. A male is called a boomer, a female is called a flyer and a baby is called a joey.

The grey kangaroo can swim by doing the doggie paddle. Kangaroos can run up to 40 miles per hour and can jump 25 feet in mid-air. They can grow up to 80 kgs. Kangaroos travel in mobs of about 12 to 100.

A kangaroo’s diet is insects, larva, grass, mulga, snakewood, fungi, shrubs and leaves. Kangaroos can go months without water but not years!

Kangaroos enjoy bushland, woodland, open forests, under trees and some even live in trees, caves and on rock cliffs. They like mallee, mulga and other scrublands. The grey kangaroo can also be found in the alpine regions. I am looking forward to seeing a kangaroo in Australia!