Why the Kangaroo Hops

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