How High Can a Kangaroo Jump? Hopping Speed and Distance

How high and how far can kangaroos jump?

The figures below are for the red kangaroo, the largest species and the one most studied for its hopping. Big males jump highest and farthest.

The highest leaps are usually made by startled kangaroos clearing an obstacle, such as a fence or a bush. Kangaroos often cross farm fences, though they also squeeze under or through wires when they can. Older reports of single bounds of more than 12 m (40 ft) by eastern gray kangaroos exist, but they are poorly documented and should be treated with caution.

How does a kangaroo hop?

A kangaroo pushes off with both hind feet together. Its long feet act as levers, and huge muscles in the thighs power the jump. The tail, which can be over 1 m (3.3 ft) long in a big male, works as a counterweight, swinging up and down to keep the body balanced in the air.

The key to hopping, though, is in the tendons. The Achilles tendon and other long tendons at the back of the leg stretch like rubber bands when the kangaroo lands. As they spring back, they return much of that stored energy to the next bound. The animal bounces along almost like a pogo stick, with the muscles adding only part of the work.

At slow speeds, while grazing, kangaroos switch to a different gait. They place their front paws and tail on the ground, swing both hind legs forward together, then move the front legs again. Researchers have found that the tail actively pushes the body forward during this movement, making it almost a fifth leg.

Why is hopping so efficient?

In most running animals, including people and horses, going faster costs more and more energy. In a classic 1973 study, Terence Dawson and Richard Taylor trained red kangaroos to hop on a treadmill and measured their oxygen use. At slow hopping speeds energy use rose a little, but above about 6 km/h (4 mph) it hardly increased at all as the kangaroos went faster.

Part of the reason is how kangaroos speed up. Instead of hopping more often, they mainly take longer hops while keeping a similar hopping rate. The tendons store and return more energy on each longer bound, so speed comes cheaply.

Hopping also helps kangaroos breathe. As the body bounces, the guts move up and down like a piston against the diaphragm, which helps push air in and out of the lungs in time with each hop.

This efficiency matters in the dry interior of Australia, where red kangaroos may need to travel long distances to find fresh grass after rain.

Do all kangaroos jump the same?

All kangaroos and wallabies hop, but size and habitat change how they do it:

• Red kangaroos and eastern and western gray kangaroos are the biggest and fastest, built for open country.
• Wallaroos and euros are stocky hoppers of rocky hills.
• Rock-wallabies make sure-footed jumps between boulders and ledges.
• Tree-kangaroos live in rainforest trees and can drop surprising distances to the ground, while also walking and hopping along branches.

Larger kangaroos gain most from their springy tendons. In small wallabies, the tendons are relatively thicker and store less energy, so hopping is less of a bargain for them. For more about the size of the biggest kangaroos, see how big is a red kangaroo?

How do kangaroos compare with other jumping animals?

A red kangaroo’s longest bound of about 8–9 m (26–30 ft) is close to the human long-jump world record of 8.95 m (29 ft 4 in), but a kangaroo can repeat such hops again and again while traveling fast.

In height, kangaroos are matched by some antelopes. The impala of Africa is famous for leaps around 3 m (10 ft) high, as explained in how high can an impala jump? In speed, kangaroos are fast but not record-breaking; the cheetah and pronghorn are much faster, as shown in our list of the fastest animals.

Myths and facts about kangaroo jumping

“Kangaroos cannot move backward at all.” Kangaroos rarely move backward, because their long feet and heavy tail make it awkward, but they can shuffle back a little. In practice they simply turn around.

“Kangaroos only hop.” On land, large kangaroos move their hind legs together when hopping. In water, however, they kick each hind leg separately and are good swimmers.