Why the Kangaroo Hops

Long, long ago in the dreamtime, kangaroos didn’t hop. Instead they walked and ran on all four legs like regular animals. But there was one special kangaroo that stood out from all the others. At first he was like all the rest of them, he would walk on all four legs but he was an excellent runner.

One day kangaroo was having a rest in the shade under a mulga tree. Suddenly a huge bushfire surrounded kangaroo and he jumped and awoke from his sleep. Kangaroo felt extremely terrified and when he tried to run through the fire his front paws had been burnt pitch black and were badly shrunken.

Kangaroo knew he now couldn’t run so he tried doing something else. Using his tail and strong back legs, he started to hop. He hopped and hopped and hopped until he reached the fire. Kangaroo knew he was in great danger. So with one mighty leap he hopped over the roaring flames and hopped away.

When he attempted to walk on his front paws he realised that he couldn’t. So he started to hop again. All the other kangaroos looked at him strangely. But kangaroo didn’t care and he hopped off and away.  

If you look at kangaroos paws very closely you will see where they were burnt by the fire long, long ago. And that is why the kangaroo hops.

Retold by Liam O’Connor