📸 PhotoRed Kangaroo at Nashville Zoo
Photo: Ltshears · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Red Kangaroo
Osphranter rufus (Red Kangaroo · アカカンガルー)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 📏 Length 1.3m — ~0.7× the height of a 1.75 m adult human
- 🏢 Height 1.8m — ~1× the height of a 1.75 m human
- ⚖️ Mass 85kg — ~1.2× the mass of a 70 kg adult human
- ⚡ Speed 64km/h — ~1.7× Usain Bolt's 100 m world-record average speed (37.6 km/h)
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The largest extant marsupial (pouched mammal) and a symbol of the Australian continent, leaping 9 m in a single bound and hopping at 70 km/h.
🌐 Wikipedia Summary ExtractThe red kangaroo is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the largest extant marsupial. It is found across mainland Australia, except for the more fertile areas, such as southern Western Australia, the eastern and southeastern coasts, and the rainforests along the northern coast.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Because its massive Achilles tendons store landing energy like springs and reuse it for the next leap, oxygen efficiency actually improves the faster it hops. Its thick tail supports its body weight like a 'fifth leg' when walking.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
A newborn joey is only 2.5 cm long (the size of a jellybean) and crawls on its own into its mother's pouch (marsupium) to nurse and grow.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
It is a prime model of marsupial evolution in the Australasian realm (biogeographic realm), which evolved separately from placentals.
📚 Sources & References
- • Wikipedia “Red kangaroo”
- • Wikidata Q104831614
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • animaldiversity.org — Macropus rufus
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Geoff Shaw · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Notamacropus eugenii)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.