My favorite animal!

A common myth about my favorite animal is its name. The legend says that an English man asked to native people: what it’s the name of this animal? And one of them answered kangaroo (which means in their language: “I don’t understand you”).

A kangaroo is a marsupial which means that has a distinctive pouch (called the marsupium), in which females carry their young through early infancy. This is the characteristic that I love from these animals since I was little when I saw one on TV. I like this animal for many reasons.

Firstly, these animals are uncommon mammals because they finish their gestation period in their “marsupium bag” so the kangaroo mothers are so careful. Also this bag works like a transportation system that protects the little kangaroos from some predatory animals.

Furthermore, the kangaroo belongs to the family Macropodidae which means “large foot”. This characteristic explains why Kangaroos are the only large animals to use hopping as a means of locomotion.

In addition, the kangaroo is a national symbol of Australia because you can find it only in this country. It is the emblem used on the Australian coat of arms, on some of its currency, as well as by some of Australia's best known organizations like an airline.

The larger kangaroos have adapted very well to changes brought to the Australian landscape by humans. Nevertheless, many of small ones are endangered because the wild ones are shot for meat, sport, pets, and to protect grazing land for sheep and cattle.

In my opinion, this is a very bad practice because only one country has this beautiful animal, so I think that they should protect them, further more if they are the national symbol. I’d like to work educating about animal protection (not only kangaroo) specially endemic species.