85 kg187 lb
A big adult male red kangaroo weighs about 85 kg (187 lb), and the Australian Museum puts the top weight for males at 92 kg (203 lb). Females are far lighter, at no more than about 39 kg (86 lb). The red kangaroo is the largest living marsupial, and a newborn joey weighs under a gram.
| Heaviest malesUpper limit given by the Australian Museum | 92 kg203 lb |
|---|---|
| Big adult male | 85 kg187 lb |
| Smaller adult maleLower end of the usual 55 to 90 kg range | 55 kg121 lb |
| Largest femalesUpper limit given by the Australian Museum | 39 kg86 lb |
| Smaller adult femaleLower end of the usual 18 to 40 kg range | 18 kg39.7 lb |
| Joey at weaningAbout 12 months old, 10 to 11 kg | 10.5 kg23.1 lb |
It depends mostly on sex. Adult males usually weigh 55 to 90 kg (121 to 198 lb), and the Australian Museum gives 92 kg (203 lb) as their upper limit. A big, mature male of about 85 kg is the animal Australians call a “big red”. Females usually weigh 18 to 40 kg (40 to 88 lb), and the Australian Museum puts their maximum at 39 kg (86 lb), so the largest males are more than twice as heavy as the largest females.
Much of the difference is in the upper body. Males develop much larger shoulders and arms than females, and they fight other males over mates by leaning back on their tails and kicking with their hind legs. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance lists males anywhere from 22 to 92 kg, a spread that takes in young, newly grown males as well as big old ones.
According to the Australian Museum, males measure up to 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) from nose to rump and females up to 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in), with a tail of up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) on top of that. Standing upright, a large male is about 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) to the top of its head, and close to 2 m when it rises up on its toes.
The largest red kangaroo on record stood 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) and weighed 91 kg (201 lb). A better known giant was Roger, a hand-raised male at The Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs who went viral in 2015 for crushing metal buckets. He stood about 2 m (6 ft 7 in), weighed close to 200 lb (about 90 kg), and died of old age in December 2018 at 12.
Like all marsupials, a red kangaroo is born tiny. After a pregnancy of only 33 days, the newborn is about 2.5 cm long and weighs around 0.75 g (less than 1/30 oz), which the Australian Museum compares to a jellybean. It crawls into the pouch and stays attached to a teat for about the first 70 days.
By about 190 days it weighs around 2 kg (4.4 lb), has fur, and starts leaving the pouch for short trips. It leaves for good at about 235 days but keeps drinking milk until it is roughly a year old and 10 to 11 kg (22 to 24 lb). A male that reaches 85 kg has grown more than 100,000 times heavier than he was at birth (85,000 g ÷ 0.75 g ≈ 113,000).
A big adult male weighs about 187 lb (85 kg), and the heaviest males reach about 200 lb. Adult females usually weigh 40 to 88 lb (18 to 40 kg).
Females usually weigh 18 to 40 kg (40 to 88 lb), and the Australian Museum gives 39 kg (86 lb) as their maximum. They are often blue-grey rather than red, which is why Australians call them “blue fliers”.
A newborn red kangaroo weighs about 0.75 g, roughly the size of a jellybean. It weighs about 2 kg (4.4 lb) when it first peeks out of the pouch at around 190 days, and 10 to 11 kg (22 to 24 lb) when it is weaned at about one year.
The largest on record was a male 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) tall and 91 kg (201 lb). The Australian Museum gives 92 kg as the top weight for males.
Red kangaroos can hop at around 60 km/h (37 mph). Males can cover 8 to 9 m (26 to 30 ft) in a single leap, though a normal hop is 1.2 to 1.9 m.
Last checked October 2, 2026.
