Rufus, the Ranger Roo – My story

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Hi everyone, I’m Rufus, the Ranger Roo. I’m a Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus) and live in Murray-Sunset National Park in Victoria, Australia. I live with a big group of mates called a mob. We live in desert, scrubland or grassland areas.  During the day, I like relaxing under a shady tree or boxing with one of my mob – we can be quite intimidating as we can weigh up to 80 kilograms and stand almost two metres tall.

At night, I enjoy grazing and exploring the open plains of the habitat where I live with other members of my mob. I can cover large distances and can jump over 55 kilometres per hour. Sometimes, when we race, and go really fast. I can leap almost two metres high and over eight metres long. When I’m not jumping, I lean back on my sturdy tail to balance.

I look slightly different from my relatives, the Eastern Grey and Western Grey Kangaroos. I’ve got orange-red fur, a white underbelly and black and white patches on my cheeks. I’m a herbivore and mainly eat a lot of grasses, forbs, nuts, seeds and leaves, foraging at night looking for other tasty plants. I’m also a great swimmer and like to go for a swim in rivers or dams when it’s hot or if I need to escape from a predator, like the Australian Dingo.

There are lots of Red Kangaroos in the north of Victoria at the moment. This is because lots of “joey” (baby) kangaroos are born when the rains come. Joeys are born the size of a jellybean and live in their mother’s pouch until they are ready to hop around. I’m looking forward to exploring the grasslands of the Murray Sunset National Park with the newest members of mob soon.