Kangaroos are the world’s largest marsupials and include the Red, Eastern Grey, Western Grey, Antilopine, Common Wallaroo, and the Black Wallaroo. Famous for hopping, kangaroos can reach speeds of 60kph (approx. 37mph). Kangaroos are built with short hair, powerful hind legs, small forelimbs, big feet, and a long tail that is used to balance when hopping as well as used as another limb when moving about. They are good swimmers, and will swim to avoid predators, using their forepaws to drown pursuers.

The Panda - living mainly in forests of southwest China, they subsist almost entirely on bamboo, consuming 26-84 pounds of it a day. The newborn is about the size of a stick of butter. But when fully grown, the females can weigh up to 200 lbs and the males around 300 lbs on a four-foot frame. Despite their bulky size, Pandas are great tree climbers.

One of our closest wild relatives, the Gorilla shares 98.3% of our DNA. The female gives birth only once every 4-6 years. With such a low birth rate, the species has a difficult time recovering from population decline. Poaching, diseases, and habitat destruction threaten the four gorilla subspecies: Mountain Gorilla, Western Lowland Gorilla, Eastern Lowland Gorilla, and Cross River Gorilla.

The Manatee - what a sad story and life they live. Forever living in a dangerous situation, boaters are responsible for so many of their deaths. Surface swimmers, they are considered Endangered and are on the brink of losing that status despite their declining numbers. Why? My guess is because not enough people care. People, the ones who make all the decisions about what animal should live or die. Again, why? Because Manatees are not a food source for humans so little is done to protect them. Because we can't see them and like a lot of what is in our oceans, what we can't see becomes irrelevant in our lives. 

To continue my series to promote my EyeHelpAnimals.com website, my next animal to feature, in honor of summer and beach-goers, is the dolphin.