What Is a Baby Kangaroo Called?
A baby kangaroo is called a joey. The adult male kangaroos are called bucks, boomers or jacks. Adult females are known as does, flyers or jills.
According to Live Science, kangaroos are marsupials, meaning they give birth to young who are not fully developed. A newborn joey is often barely bigger than a grain of rice. The joey continues to grow inside the mother’s pouch where it gains nourishment from milk and where it is sheltered and kept warm and protected for 120 to 400 days. A kangaroo grows to a height of 3 to 8 feet. Kangaroos travel together in a “mob” that ranges from 10 to over 100 kangaroos. If there is more than one male in a mob, they compete for dominance by boxing. Kangaroos are native to Australia, but they are adaptable to other climates.
The name kangaroo has an interesting story behind it. When the first explorers from Europe arrived in Australia, they asked the native Aborigine people for the name of the animal. The natives did not understand their question, so they relied “Kangaroo,” which means “I don’t understand,” and the name stuck because explorers believed it to be its name. The word kangaroo was first used in 1770 in the diary of Sir Joseph Banks. Banks was an English botanist, who enjoyed collecting plants from around the world.
There are more than 40 species of kangaroo in the world. The largest kangaroo is the red kangaroo, while the smaller ones are known as wallabies. The red kangaroo is taller than the average man.