Wallabies are not kangaroos! Both kangaroos and wallabies belong to a group of animals called marsupials (the group of animals whose females all have a pouch that contains mammary glands and is capable of holding the young), and both belong to the same taxonomic family (Macropodidae, which means "big feet"), but wallabies are a different species of animal from what is commonly understood as "the kangaroo".

How are wallabies and kangaroos different?
Wallabies are smaller than kangaroos, but they share many of their talents. They can hop 4-6 feet high and they can broad jump 25 feet. They can hop up to 40 miles per hour, but at this speed they will tire quickly. A kangaroo, on the other hand, is much faster and can jump farther - one kangaroo was seen to jump the length of a school bus!

What's this about a pouch?
At birth, a baby wallaby -- called a "joey" -- is no bigger than a bumblebee! Newborns weigh just one gram and measure less than an inch long. They're mostly head, front legs, and paws, but they have well-developed forelimbs and shoulders. As soon the baby leaves the birth canal, it begins to climb up its mother’s tummy. Using a snake like motion, it pulls itself through the dense fur until it falls into the safety of the pouch. Once inside the pouch, the joey latches onto a nipple and remains solidly attached for 3 months.

After 6 months eating and growing in the pouch, the joey emerges as a furry, alert youngster, eager to look around and greet the world. From the pouch, a joey can explore the world safely. It can reach out and sniff objects, and it can pick up grasses and try to eat them. Later on, the mother will show the joey which grasses to eat. Until it is able to eat on its own, the mother’s milk is the joey's main food source.

A joey may come and go from the pouch for up to nine months. To get back into the pouch, the young joey will grip the rim with its forepaws, dive in head first, somersault to get right side up, and twist around to face outside. Mom will quit allowing the joey back into the pouch when another baby is developing there.