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Kangaroos are the best-known members of a primitive mammalian group called marsupials, which are native to Australia and New Guinea. They are easily recognizable from their unusual hopping locomotion. The ease with which a kangaroo hops is not just an illusion; it is a highly efficient mode of travel, even more so than running. Kangaroos can store energy in their muscles at the end of each hop and use it to propel themselves for the next. Some of the largest kangaroo species can leap up to nine meters in a single bound. Like most marsupials, kangaroos carry their young in a pouch on the female's abdomen. The new-born, typically no more than two centimeters long, must climb unaided immediately after birth to the pouch, where it latches onto a nipple and continues to grow. Even after outgrowing the pouch, the young kangaroo (known as a joey) will still return to nurse. Kangaroos are herbivores, feeding exclusively on plants. They inhabit a variety of environments, from dry plains and dense rainforests to mountain meadows, which can be snow-covered in winter.
