Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

• Primarily grazers, consuming grasses and other annual plants (Griffiths & Barker 1966; Dawson et al. 1975; Hume 1999):
• In wet season, diet shifts to nearly 55% forbs (Dawson & Ellis 1994)
• In drier seasons, shrubs eaten
• In severe drought, grass was 87-91% of diet
• In absence of grass, plants in goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae) consumed (Bailey et al. 1971)
• Wild kangaroos eat (in New South Wales) (Croft 1981):
  • Fat-leafed saltbush (Atriplex vesicaria) makes up about 57% of diet (wet weight)
  • Round-leafed saltbush, Bassia about 12%
  • Grasses about 31% of diet (Enneapggon and Dicanthium)

• Travel to areas of good grazing in response to storms as far away as 10-20 km (6-12 mi) (Bailey 1971; Newsome 1975)
• After good rains, kangaroos abandon open grassy areas, even though food is abundant (Newsome 1997)
  • Open plains with water provided by cattle ranchers are a new landscape feature that helps kangaroos withstand droughts
  • When rains return, kangaroos revert to favored habitats with shade trees
• Foregut fermenters (Hume 1982) (Hume 1999)
  • A tube-shaped fore stomach helps digest fibrous vegetation (Munn & Dawson 2003)
  • The kangaroo's stomach is most like the colon of a horse; not as similar to a ruminant's stomach
  • Can digest fibrous plant material, unpalatable even to goats
    • This ability to utilize high fiber diets is shared by colon fermenters such as horses
• Adult red kangaroos have a resting metabolism that is only 70% of that of a sheep (Munn & Dawson 2003)
• Much interest by ranchers and biologists as to whether kangaroos compete with cattle and sheep for forage
  • In times of drought, red kangaroos take plant species preferred by sheep (Edwards et al. 1995)
    • This forces sheep to switch to chenopods; not known if this affects sheep fitness
  • Even in times of drought, red kangaroos compete little with cattle (Dudzinski et al. 1982)
• In a study comparing feeding biology of red kangaroos and sheep (Munn et al. 2010):
  • Kangaroos ate fewer kinds of plants than sheep
  • Kangaroos required only 13% of the water required by sheep

Bailey et al. (1971)
Bailey (1971)
Croft (1981)
Dawson et al. (1975)
Dawson & Ellis (1994, 1996)
Dudzinski et al. (1982)
Edwards et al. (1995)
Griffiths & Barker (1966)
Hume (1982, 1999)
Munn & Dawson (2003)
Munn et al. (2010)
Newsome (1975)