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Eastern grey kangaroo, forester, great grey kangaroo - MACROPUS GIGANTEUS
Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Kangaroo": Probably derives from a native Australian word out of the Queensland area. The Latin name means "long foot gigantic."
Distribution: Eastern Australia, Tasmania.
Habitat: Terrestrial. Forests and woodlands.
Description: The gray kangaroo is a large kangaroo with hind limbs and feet of intermediate length, and a heavy long tapering tail. Its fur is short and fine, silver-gray in color in both sexes, frequently darker on the hands, toes, and tip of the tail. In males the head and body length is about 60", and the maximum recorded weight was 200 lb, but females are much smaller.
Behavior: Slightly shorter than the red kangaroo, but perhaps
heavier, the great grey occupies a different habitat even where the two species overlap in range, preferring heavy scrub and forest of the damp coast and mountains. By day, groups or "mobs" of grey kangaroos rest under the trees, foraging for food from evening until early morning. This species eats grass and a few small plants. Like all large terrestrial kangaroos, it crawls slowly with its four feet flat on the ground when grazing; each pair of limbs moving forward in unison. The tail is used as a prop and becomes a balance when the animal hops.
Reproduction: Grey kangaroos breed throughout the year, with gestation lasting from 29 to 38 days, varying regionally. Delayed implantation occurs infrequently. The single annual young of this species has the longest pouch life known in marsupials, 300 days or more, and it suckles until 18 months old.
Go to the Marsupials Page to get a general discussion of these animals.
Or go to the Kangaroo Index to study other kangaroos.
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