Australia's Red Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations

Summary: Blue-gray female and red-brown male red kangaroo natural history illustrations get arid and flat, grassy, shrubby, woody semi-arid homelands.

red kangaroo (Macropus rufus); Kilcowra Station, South West Queensland, northeastern Australia; June 1, 2015: Dan Armbrust, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Red kangaroo natural history illustrations attest to the apposable aspects of archetypical behaviors, colors, habitats and sizes that assemble red kangaroos into their own species within insular and mainland Australia's Macropus kangaroo genus.

Red kangaroos bear the additional common names blue fliers for female body colors and plains and red plains kangaroos for one of the species' biogeographical niches. They carry the scientific name Macropus rufus ("big-footed red [kangaroo]") for marsupial ([maternal] pouch-bearing) membership in the Macropodidae kangaroo, pademelon, quokka, tree-kangaroo, wallaby and wallaroo family. Descriptions in 1822 by Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (March 6, 1784-June 4, 1838), zoology professor at l'École vétérinaire d'Alfort ("[National] Veterinary School of Alfort"), dominate scientific designations.

Red kangaroo natural history illustrations sometimes elaborate extensive habitat niches, almost continent-wide, that exclude the Commonwealth of Australia's coastal and subcoastal eastern, northern and southern mainland.

Physically and sexually mature blue flier, plains, red and red plains kangaroos fit into the Land Down Under's kangaroo genus-typical, summertime breeding season December through February.

Sixteen-year captive and 20- to 30-year wild red kangaroo life expectancies garner sexual maturity for females as 14- to 20-month-olds and males as 20- to 24-month-olds. They herald one 32- to 34-day gestated, thin-shelled, white egg at a time and one newborn's three-minute hike from the birthing canal to the maternal pouch. The blind, hairless, pink, scent-impelled, 0.03-ounce (0.75-gram), 0.79-inch- (2-centimeter-) long, 0.29-inch- (0.7-centimeter-) wide newborn investigates pouch life with developed digits, forelimbs, jaw muscles, nostrils and tongues.

Red kangaroo natural history illustrations sometimes juxtapose life cycle stages since females sometimes juggle simultaneously one egg, one newborn, one dependent joey and one weaned joey.

Newborns to 59-day-olds and 150- to 190- and 190- to 235-day-old joeys respectively keep to low-fat milk, to higher-fat milk and to greens and high-fat milk.

Embryonic diapause temporarily locks each egg at a 100-cell mass until drought lessens, famine lets up or the in-pouch joey leaves as a 190- to 235-day-old. Joeys move temporarily in and out of maternal pouches as 190- to 235-day-olds and permanently out, but at-foot, as 235- to 365-day-olds, until independent, weaned year-olds. Bassia diacantha (gray copperburr) and Maireana pyramidata (shrubby bluebush) and Enneapogon avenaceus (bottle-washer) and Eragrostis setifolia (narrow-leaf never-fall) respectively number among red kangaroo-friendly chenopods and grasses.

Red kangaroo natural history illustrations offer informational images of 6-foot- (1.83-meter-) high jumps, 25-foot (7.62-meter-) long leaps and 35-mile (56.33-kilometer) hourly speeds toward grazing, shaded grounds.

Red kangaroos pursue respectively semi-solitary, small-group life cycles as boomers (males) and, with offspring, fliers (females) near mulga (Acacia aneura) and saltbushes (Atriplex and Chenopodium spp).

Females queue 33.47- to 41.34-inch (85- to 105-centimeter) head-body lengths, 25.59- to 33.47-inch (65- to 85-centimeter) tail lengths and 44.09- to 88.19-pound (20- to 40-kilogram) weights. Males reveal 51.18- to 62.99-inch (130- to 160-centimeter) head-body lengths, 39.37- to 47.24-inch (100- to 120-centimeter) tail lengths and 88- to 198.42-pound (40- to 90-kilogram) weights. Mature females and males show black-and-white muzzles, broad-, white-striped cheeks, dark, five-clawed, five-toed fore-paws and four-clawed, four-toed hind-feet, dusky naked nosetips, gray-white undersides and pale-tipped tails.

Red kangaroo natural history illustrations tally agroindustry-, climate change-, hunt-thwarted blue-gray and red-brown populations that the International Union for Conservation of Nature tags as "least concern."

head closeup of red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) by English artist and ornithologist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881); H.C. (Henry Constantine) Richter lithographer, (Charles Joseph) Hullmandel and (Joseph Fowell) Walton printers: J. Gould's Mammals of Australia (1863), vol. II, Plate 6 (opposite page 9): Public Domain via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

red kangaroo (Macropus rufus); Kilcowra Station, South West Queensland, northeastern Australia; June 1, 2015: Dan Armbrust, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/77486088@N06/20423762350/

head closeup of red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) by English artist and ornithologist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881); H.C. (Henry Constantine) Richter lithographer, (Charles Joseph) Hullmandel and (Joseph Fowell) Walton printers: J. Gould's Mammals of Australia (1863), vol. II, Plate 6 (opposite page 9): Public Domain via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/mammalsAustrali2Goul#page/6/mode/1up

For further information:

Desm. (Desmarest, Anselme Gaëtan). 1817. "Second espèce. -- Kanguroo brun enfumé, Kangurus fuliginosus." Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, Appliquée aux Arts, à l'Agriculture, à l'Économie Rurale et Domestique, à la Médecine, etc. Tome XVII: 35-36, Plate XXII. Paris, France: Chez Deterville, MDCCCXVII.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/18054378

Desmarest, A. G. (Anselme Gaëtan). 1822. "841. (414 bis.) Kanguroo roux, Kangurus rufus." Mammalogie, ou, Description des Espèces de Mammifères. Seconde Partie, Contenant les Ordres des Rongeurs, des Édentés, des Pachydermes, des Ruminants et des Cétacés. Supplément: 540-541. Paris, France: Chez Mme Veuve Agasse, 1822.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39521985

Gould, John. September 1842. "Description of Two New Species of Kangaroos From Western Australia: Macropus ocydromus." The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. X: 1-2. London, England: R. and J.E. Taylor.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2324037

Gould, John. 1863. "Macropus Ocydromus. West-Australian Great Kangaroo." The Mammals of Australia, vol. II: pages 6-7, Plates 3-4. London, England: Printed for The Author by Taylor and Francis.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49740661
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/mammalsAustrali2Goul#page/5/mode/1up

Gould, John. 1863. "Osphranter Rufus. Great Red Kangaroo." The Mammals of Australia, vol. II: pages 9-11, Plates 6-7. London, England: Printed for The Author by Taylor and Francis.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49740665
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/mammalsAustrali2Goul#page/6/mode/1up

Iredale, T. (Tom); and E. (Ellis) Le G. Troughton. 1934. "A Check-List of the Mammals Recorded From Australia." Australian Museum Memoir, vol. 6 (May 4, 1934): 1-122. Sydney, Australia: The Trustees of the Australian Museum.
Available @ https://australianmuseum.net.au/uploads/journals/17234/516_complete.pdf
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47102257

Lundie-Jenkins, Geoff. "Wallabies and Kangaroos." In: Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist and Melissa C. McDade, eds. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 13, Mammals II: 83-103. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Marriner, Derdriu. 25 November 2016. "Australia's Antelope Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/11/australias-tropical-antelope-kangaroo.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 December 2016. "Australia's Eastern Gray Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/australias-eastern-gray-kangaroo.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 December 2016. "Tasmanian Eastern Gray Forester Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/tasmanian-eastern-gray-forester.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 December 2016. "Australia's Western Gray Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/australias-western-gray-kangaroo.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 23 December 2016. "Kangaroo Island Western Gray Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/kangaroo-island-western-gray-kangaroo.html