Kangaroos… and maybe wallabies.

Kangaroo1

Wallabies are a small breed of kangaroo and can be mistaken for young ones, and this group looked to be a mix of wallabies and kangaroos – turning up right when I was thinking about them, conveniently next door in a neighboring paddock – It was hard to tell exactly which breed(s) they were as they were pretty well at the limits of our camera’s zoom, but the large dark one was definitely a kangaroo.

There are several differences between kangaroos and wallabies, from differences in teeth to differences in ankle-to-knee proportion (the kangaroo having more length, as they are built for racing along in open spaces, while wallabies are more built for forested areas).

Kangaroo2

The biggest difference between them is size. There are quite a few species of both kangaroo and wallabies, and quite a range in sizes for both. Wallabies can reach six feet from head to tail, but if you are looking at height and discount the length of their tails, wallabies only grow to between 30 cm and 104 cm (1 foot to 3 feet 5 inches) and weigh between 2 and 24 kg (4 to 53 pounds). Kangaroos, however, can grow over 2 metres (8 feet), and can weigh over 90 kg (200 pounds).

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