Kangaroo, a group of animals peculiar to the Australian region. They are described by naturalists as herbivorous, marsupial mammals, which, being translated, means that they live on herbs, suckle their young, and carry them in pouches. The giant kangaroo of the Australian plains is about six or seven feet high. Its head, neck, shoulders, and front legs are slight. The hinder parts are heavy, and its hind legs are very large and muscular. The tail is enormously thick like the thigh of a man, tapering off to a length almost equaling that of the body. The front paws are used more for seizing food, or by the mother in handling the young, than for any other purpose. Instead of standing on its feet, the kangaroo sits on its crooked hind legs and tail. It travels by tremendous hops, clearing from ten to fifteen and even thirty feet of space at a leap, alighting as before on its hind legs and tail. The front feet are not brought to the ground. The skin of the lower belly of the female is thrust inward to form a roomy, comfortable pouch. The young, which are extremely small, immature, and helpless at birth, are placed by the mother in the pouch where they suckle continuously for a time. When they have attained size and strength they play about like the young of any other quadruped, but leap into the pouch again to suckle, or at the slightest signal of danger given by the mother. When kangaroos were first seen by Capt. Cook in 1770 they were tame and could be knocked down with clubs, but constant pursuit by the natives, chasing by dogs, and hunting with guns have made kangaroos exceedingly timid and wary. They are receding farther and farther from the coast into the wilder parts of the continent. Although exceedingly inoffensive the kangaroo shows fight when cornered, and is able to disembowel dog or man with a single blow from one of its powerful, long-clawed hind feet. Kangaroos prefer to go in herds. Their teeth are adapted to nip grass and twigs. There are numerous smaller species of kangaroos. There are also many kangaroo-like animals in this region. They shade off from the true kangaroo to animals not very different, either in size of appearance, from the long-tailed jumping mouse. See AUSTRALIA.