Macropods are the marsupial family Macropodidae and its close relatives, encompassing kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, pademelons, quokkas, potoroos, bettongs, and several other less familiar groups. Altogether, roughly 75 living species carry the “macropod” label, ranging from rat-sized forest dwellers weighing under a kilogram to red kangaroos that stand taller than most people. The group’s scientific name means “big foot,” and that oversized hind foot is the thread connecting species as different as a tree-kangaroo gripping a rainforest branch and a red kangaroo bounding across an arid plain.
What Counts as a Macropod
The word “macropod” is used in two slightly different ways, and the distinction matters when you’re trying to make sense of species lists. In the narrow sense, macropods are members of the family Macropodidae, which includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, and several smaller groups like pademelons and the quokka. In the broader sense, the superfamily Macropodoidea also pulls in the family Potoroidae, covering potoroos, bettongs, and the musky rat-kangaroo. Most popular references use “macropod” in the broad sense, treating all of these hopping marsupials as one natural group.
Molecular studies have helped clarify how these animals relate to each other. Analyses of both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA consistently group the large kangaroos (genus Macropus) and the swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) together, with rock-wallabies, tree-kangaroos, and hare-wallabies branching off in sequence outside that core cluster.1PLOS ONE. Inferring Kangaroo Phylogeny from Incongruent Nuclear and Mitochondrial Genes The internal relationships among the large kangaroo subgroups remain somewhat tangled, with mitochondrial and nuclear genes sometimes telling different stories, but the broad architecture of the family tree is well established.
The Large Kangaroos
When most people picture a macropod, they’re thinking of the large kangaroos in the genus Macropus (some taxonomists now split them into Macropus, Osphranter, and Notamacropus, but older references lump them together). The headline species include the red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus), the largest living marsupial, and the eastern and western grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus and M. fuliginosus). These three species overlap in range across much of eastern Australia, with the red kangaroo dominating the arid interior and the greys favoring more temperate and coastal regions.2ScienceDirect. Home range of the red kangaroo Macropus rufus The common wallaroo, or euro (Osphranter robustus), rounds out the “big four” and is stockier and more associated with rocky hillsides.
Males of the large species can weigh over 85 kilograms. They live in loose, fluid groups sometimes called “mobs,” and adult males compete for access to females through ritualized boxing matches that involve grappling with the forelimbs and kicking with the powerful hind legs. The large kangaroos are grazers, feeding mainly on grasses and low shrubs, and their populations can boom in good rainfall years and crash during drought.
Wallabies, Pademelons, and the Quokka
Below the big kangaroos in size sits a diverse collection of species loosely called wallabies. This isn’t a formal taxonomic group so much as a convenient bin for medium-sized macropods. Rock-wallabies (genus Petrogale) are among the most species-rich, with around 16 recognized species adapted to rocky outcrops and cliff faces across Australia. They tend to have rough-soled feet for gripping stone, shorter and less specialized hind limbs than their open-country relatives, and strikingly varied fur patterns that help distinguish species that are otherwise hard to tell apart.
Pademelons (genus Thylogale) are compact, forest-dwelling wallabies found in eastern Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. They rarely weigh more than about 12 kilograms and stick close to dense vegetation, venturing into clearings to graze at dusk. Nail-tail wallabies (genus Onychogalea) get their name from a small, horny spur at the tip of the tail whose function remains unclear. One of the three nail-tail species, the crescent nail-tail wallaby, is already extinct.
The quokka (Setonix brachyurus) deserves special mention because it has become one of the most publicly recognizable macropods thanks to tourist selfies on Rottnest Island, off Western Australia’s coast. Despite the island population’s fame, mainland quokkas are far less secure. Genetic studies show the Rottnest population retains about 70% of the genetic diversity found on the mainland, but its long isolation (around 6,000 years, since rising sea levels cut the island off) has made it genetically distinct enough that simply moving island animals to the mainland would risk introducing maladapted individuals.3Conservation Genetics. Population genetic structure of island and mainland populations of the quokka, Setonix brachyurus (Macropodidae): a comparison of AFLP and microsatellite markers4Australian Journal of Zoology. Persistence of remnant patches and genetic loss at the distribution periphery in island and mainland populations of the quokka Mainland populations have suffered severe bottlenecks from habitat loss and introduced predators.
Tree-Kangaroos
Tree-kangaroos (genus Dendrolagus) are the macropods that went back up. Around a dozen species live in the tropical rainforests of New Guinea and far northeastern Australia, and they look almost paradoxical: animals built from a hopping blueprint, remodeled for climbing. Their forelimbs are proportionally much stronger than those of ground-dwelling kangaroos, with enlarged muscles for adduction, grasping, and gripping, along with modified shoulder and arm joints that allow a wider range of motion.5PubMed. Functional morphology of the forelimb of living and extinct tree-kangaroos (Marsupialia: Macropodidae)
Their hind limbs tell an equally interesting story. Where a red kangaroo’s leg tendons are long and elastic, built to store and release energy like a pogo stick, tree-kangaroo leg muscles have shorter, stouter tendons and longer fleshy bellies. This trades away elastic energy storage in favor of fine joint control, which matters when you’re walking along branches that flex and shift under your weight. The hip muscles are also reorganized, giving tree-kangaroos better ability to move their legs independently and rotate them outward, something a hopping kangaroo rarely needs to do.6Australian Journal of Zoology. Anatomical adaptations of the hind limb musculature of tree-kangaroos for arboreal locomotion (Marsupialia : Macropodinae) Most tree-kangaroo species are poorly studied and threatened by hunting and deforestation.
Potoroos, Bettongs, and the Musky Rat-Kangaroo
The smaller macropodoids in the family Potoroidae are often overlooked but ecologically critical. Potoroos (genus Potorous) are rabbit-sized animals that forage on the forest floor for fungi, roots, and invertebrates. Bettongs (genus Bettongia) are similar in size and habits. Together, they occupy a niche with no real equivalent among placental mammals in other ecosystems.
The most unusual member of this family is the musky rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus), the smallest of all macropods at roughly 500 grams. It lives in the rainforests of northeastern Queensland and stands apart from every other macropod in several ways: it moves by quadrupedal bounding rather than bipedal hopping, it lacks the specialized foot and ankle features associated with hopping, it retains a simpler stomach, and it routinely produces twins rather than the single joey typical of other macropods.7PubMed. The phylogenetic position of the musky rat-kangaroo and the evolution of bipedal hopping in kangaroos (Macropodidae: Diprotodontia) Whether it represents the most primitive branch of the macropod family tree or sits within the potoroo lineage remains debated, but either way it offers a window into what early macropods may have looked like before hopping evolved.
How Macropods Move
Hopping is the macropod signature, and it is not just a quirky alternative to running. At high speeds, large kangaroos use their leg tendons like springs: during each landing, the gastrocnemius and plantaris tendons stretch and store elastic energy, then snap back to launch the next hop. This mechanism is so efficient that oxygen consumption stays roughly constant across a wide range of hopping speeds, which is strikingly different from quadrupedal mammals, whose energy costs rise steadily with speed.8Journal of Zoology. The mechanics of hopping by kangaroos (Macropodidae) Measurements of the gastrocnemius muscle in wallabies confirmed this: when the muscle was generating close to its peak force, up to eight times as much movement occurred in the tendon as in the muscle fibers themselves, thanks to the tendon being long and compliant.9PubMed Central. Measurements of muscle stiffness and the mechanism of elastic storage of energy in hopping kangaroos
At low speeds, however, hopping is impractical, and this is where macropods do something no other mammal group does. They switch to a “pentapedal” gait, planting the tail on the ground in sequence with the front and hind legs and literally walking on five limbs. The tail isn’t just a passive prop: it generates as much propulsive force as the front and hind legs combined, and it does as much mass-specific mechanical work as a human leg does during walking at the same speed.10PubMed Central. The kangaroo’s tail propels and powers pentapedal locomotion During this gait, the tail repositions forward, plants firmly on the ground, and holds still while the hind limbs swing through, keeping the pelvis at a constant height.11Australian Journal of Zoology. Walking on five legs: investigating tail use during slow gait in kangaroos and wallabies
Digestion and Water Conservation
Macropods are foregut fermenters, meaning they break down plant material in a specialized, enlarged stomach region before it reaches the intestines. This is broadly similar in concept to what cattle and sheep do, though the two systems evolved independently. One practical consequence that has attracted research interest is methane production. Kangaroos produce only about 27% of the body-mass-specific methane that ruminants do.12PubMed. Decreasing methane yield with increasing food intake keeps daily methane emissions constant in two foregut fermenting marsupials, the western grey kangaroo and red kangaroo The reason appears to lie in the microbial community of the kangaroo foregut. Rather than relying on methane-producing archaea to dispose of hydrogen (as ruminants do), the kangaroo gut favors reductive acetogenesis, a process that converts carbon dioxide and hydrogen into acetate, which the animal can actually use for energy. This pathway effectively recaptures energy that ruminants lose as methane gas.13The ISME Journal. Investigation of the microbial metabolism of carbon dioxide and hydrogen in the kangaroo foregut by stable isotope probing
Water conservation is another area where arid-zone macropods impress. Red kangaroos and euros have kidneys that produce highly concentrated urine, with glomerular filtration rates and urine flow rates well below those of similarly sized placental mammals.14PubMed. Kidney structure and function of desert kangaroos Euros, which tend to stick to small, rocky home ranges even during drought, compensate by reabsorbing a higher proportion of urea from the kidney filtrate. Different macropod species also rely on different balances of hormonal and behavioral strategies: on Barrow Island off Western Australia, euros and spectacled hare-wallabies showed high blood levels of the marsupial antidiuretic hormone (lysine vasopressin) during dry seasons, while black-footed rock-wallabies and burrowing bettongs living alongside them kept their hormone levels almost undetectably low, apparently relying more on behavioral avoidance of heat and water loss.15PubMed. Comparative water metabolism of Barrow Island macropodid marsupials: hormonal versus behavioural-dependent mechanisms of body water conservation
Ecological Roles Beyond Grazing
The smaller macropodoids play ecological roles that have no obvious substitute. Potoroos and bettongs are among the most important dispersers of truffle-like ectomycorrhizal fungi in Australian forests. These underground fungi form partnerships with tree roots, helping trees access soil nutrients and water, but because the fungi fruit below ground, they depend on animals to dig them up and scatter their spores. The endangered northern bettong (Bettongia tropica) consumes a more diverse fungal diet than other generalist mammals sharing its habitat, with more unique fungal taxa in its droppings. Modeling suggests that losing highly connected specialist species like the northern bettong could have cascading effects on fungal diversity and, by extension, forest health.16PubMed. The endangered northern bettong, Bettongia tropica, performs a unique and potentially irreplaceable dispersal function for ectomycorrhizal truffle fungi
The long-footed potoroo (Potorous longipes) fills a similar niche further south. Metabarcoding of its droppings has revealed 38 truffle-like fungal taxa from 14 genera, and several of those fungal genera show strong associations with specific temperature and rainfall conditions, meaning the timing of when potoroos move spores around may be shaped by seasonal climate patterns.17Ecography. Climate variability shapes the mutualistic interaction between truffle‐like ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi and a mycophagous mammal If climate change shifts those conditions, the whole mutualism could be disrupted.
When Macropods Lived Large
The modern macropod list is a fraction of what once existed. During the Pleistocene, Australia supported giant kangaroos in the subfamily Sthenurinae, the short-faced kangaroos. Some of these animals weighed over 200 kilograms, and their anatomy was radically different from any living kangaroo. They had shorter faces, more forward-facing eyes, and single-toed hind feet that looked nothing like the elongated, multi-toed feet of modern hoppers.
Biomechanical analyses suggest that the largest sthenurines could not have hopped at all. Their skeletons show features consistent with supporting the body on one leg at a time, including larger hip and knee joints, stabilized ankles, and pelvic bones oriented to keep the trunk upright. Researchers have proposed that these animals used a bipedal striding gait, something occasionally seen in modern tree-kangaroos but never in ground-dwelling species today.18PubMed Central. Locomotion in extinct giant kangaroos: were sthenurines hop-less monsters? Detailed comparison of foot bone bending resistance and internal bone structure between sthenurine and modern kangaroo species further supports this idea: the differences were most extreme in Pleistocene species like Sthenurus stirlingi and Procoptodon browneorum, which had reduced their feet to a single functional toe.19PubMed Central. Divergent locomotor evolution in “giant” kangaroos: Evidence from foot bone bending resistances and microanatomy These animals vanished roughly 40,000–50,000 years ago, alongside much of Australia’s other megafauna.
How Macropod Diversity Arose
The burst of species diversity in the macropodine kangaroos (the living lineage that includes all the big kangaroos and most wallabies) was once linked to the breakup of Australia’s rainforests after the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum, around 14 million years ago. More recent molecular dating pushes the key diversification event about five million years later, to around 8.5 million years ago, when increasing aridity and habitat patchiness created the mosaic of grassland, woodland, and scrub that dominates Australia today. The sharpest spike in new species appeared around 4.5 million years ago, coinciding with the first major expansion of grasses during the Early Pliocene.20PubMed. Diversification of kangaroos and broader turnover among marsupial terrestrial herbivores coincided with emerging aridification then incipient grasslands That timing is interesting because it suggests macropods didn’t simply fill an empty niche left by retreating forests. Instead, they radiated alongside the spread of grasslands, possibly outcompeting the wombat-like vombatiform herbivores that had previously dominated those habitats.
Macropods Outside Australia
Several macropod species live wild in New Guinea, including tree-kangaroos and forest wallabies that are native there. But macropods have also established feral populations in unexpected places. Red-necked wallabies (Notamacropus rufogriseus) escaped from zoos and private collections on the Isle of Man in the mid-1900s and have since spread across roughly half the island. Surveys estimated a mean population of about 1,740 individuals at a density of around 26 wallabies per square kilometer. Their diets overlap with those of native hares, raising concerns about competition and pressure on vulnerable plant species.21Canadian Journal of Zoology. The distribution and trophic ecology of an introduced, insular population of red-necked wallabies (Notamacropus rufogriseus)
Britain’s mainland also has wallabies. Records from 2008 to 2018 documented 95 confirmed sightings of red-necked wallabies across England, Scotland, and Wales, with the highest concentration in southern England, particularly the Chiltern Hills.22PubMed Central. Where’s wallaby? Using public records and media reports to describe the status of red-necked wallabies in Britain Whether these represent a truly breeding, self-sustaining population or just a trickle of ongoing escapes remains an open question, but the animals clearly survive British winters well enough to persist across years.
Conservation Pressures
The macropod species list includes a striking number of threatened and extinct entries. While the large kangaroo species are abundant, sometimes controversially so, many of the smaller macropods are in serious decline. Habitat loss, fragmentation, changed fire regimes, and introduced predators, particularly red foxes and feral cats, are the most frequently cited threats.23PubMed Central. Habitat and introduced predators influence the occupancy of small threatened macropods in subtropical Australia Several species of bettong and potoroo now survive only in predator-free fenced exclosures or on islands where foxes and cats have been removed.
Even the abundant species face localized threats. Vehicle collisions are a major source of mortality for kangaroos living near roads in peri-urban areas. In one national-park study, male kangaroos that regularly foraged close to a road faced dramatically higher collision risk as they aged, with senescent males predicted to have annual road mortality above 60% if their range centered near the road.24Biological Conservation. Vehicle collisions and visitor disturbance reduce survival and reproductive success of kangaroos in a national park Separate research in semi-rural areas found that road deaths clustered during cold, dry periods when forage quality was low and animals were likely venturing further to feed, and that collisions increased near the ends of lit road sections, where drivers may speed up and kangaroos lose their night-adapted vision to sudden darkness.25BMC Zoology. What influences road mortality rates of eastern grey kangaroos in a semi-rural area?
Communication and Behavior
Macropods are not particularly vocal compared with many mammals, but they have a distinctive alarm behavior. Most species of kangaroo and wallaby produce a loud foot thump when they detect danger, striking one or both hind feet sharply against the ground. In eastern grey kangaroos, these thumps last about two-thirds of a second, consist of two noisy pulses, and carry most of their acoustic energy below 7 kHz, putting them in a frequency range that travels well through vegetation and along the ground. Only adults of both sexes thump, and solitary animals are more likely to thump than those in groups. Thumping also increases when visibility is poor, either because of dense habitat or low light. The signal appears to be directed at the predator rather than at other kangaroos, serving to startle, advertise that it has been detected, or discourage a chase.26Journal of Zoology. Structure and function of the eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) foot thump
Mothers and joeys communicate through soft clucking calls, and males produce guttural sounds during mating season. But beyond acoustics, macropods rely heavily on chemical signals. Males of several species have conspicuous chest glands that leave scent on vegetation, and both sexes use urine and cloacal secretions to mark their environment. The social structures vary across the family: large kangaroos form fluid aggregations without stable hierarchies beyond a dominance ranking among males, while rock-wallabies tend to form more stable pair bonds or small colonies anchored to specific cliff habitats.