Marsupials are found mostly in Australia and neighbouring island nations. They include kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, wombats, bandicoots and opossums. The opossum is the only marsupial found in North and South America.
The male kangaroo is called variously as "buck" or "boomer". The female, a flyer, and the baby, a joey. There are 45 species, ranging in size from the two-pound rock wallaby to the 300-pound red kangaroo.
Kangaroos only respond to moving objects. In the wild, they live in groups or "mobs" of up to 100 kangaroos. They can speed away at 40mph/60kmh from what they perceive as a threat.
The occasions of extreme drought conditions in Australia have caused the kangaroos to adapt. The drought often decimates the kangaroo population, but recovery can be very quick. The female can have three young ones with her at any one time: one as an embryo, waiting to be born, another nursing inside the pouch, and a third still feeding on its mother's milk. Quite often a population explosion may occur. Man has been forced to resort to the cull, to keep sufficient grazing grounds to meet the demands of both the farm animals as well as the wild, to keep all animal stock healthy.
Koalas are nocturnal animals who sleep 80 percent all their lives away. They do not build nests, but sleep in a tree fork or on a high branch. They are marsupials—they raise their young in their pouches—and their closest relative is the wombat.
Koalas weigh 5–10 kg. The heavier ones are found in Victoria. They live between 10 and 20 years, leading a solitary life, except for the times when they mate, and when the mothers raise their young. They also live in communities—next door to each other, and respecting each other's boundaries.
