The kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning “large foot”). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus: the red kangaroo, antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo, and western grey kangaroo.

Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia. The Australian government estimates that 34.3 million kangaroos lived within the commercial harvest areas of Australia in 2011, up from 25.1 million one year earlier.

Male kangaroos are called bucks, boomers, jacks, or old men; females are does, flyers, or jills, and the young ones are joeys. The collective noun for kangaroos is a mob, troop, or court.

A group of kangaroos is called a “mob”.

One may ask, why is a group of kangaroos called a mob and not something else, like herds or flocks?

The reason why kangaroo groups are not called herds of flocks is that they do not have herding behavior, which refers to all the individual animals in a group acting collectively, and each one following the group’s behavior and movement.

Kangaroo groups are called mobs because it describes their behavior of scattering away when threatened, and individual members of a group moving at liberty.

Collective noun for kangaroos

But another reason it’s easy to spot kangaroos is that they usually hang out in groups. The collective noun for kangaroos is a mob. If you see a group of kangaroos, you have officially seen a mob of kangaroos.

It is reasonably common to see a lone male, particularly in the outback, where male red kangaroos are sometimes separate from the mob.

Most of the time, however, kangaroos are social animals. They live in family groups, which will usually have ten or more roos together. Some of the bigger mobs can have hundreds of kangaroos in.

what do you call a group of kangaroos
what do you call a group of kangaroos

What is a Baby Kangaroo Called?

A baby kangaroo is called a “joey”. A joey is born only after a very short gestation period of one month.

Baby kangaroos, at birth, are blind, hairless, and are just about an inch in length. At this stage, their forelegs tend to be more developed than their hind legs. And they use the same to reach their mother’s pouch through her abdomen. The mother kangaroo’s pouch is where the vulnerable newborns feel safety and comfort.