More than 3 million people each year visit the San Diego Zoo (sandiegozoo.org), which “Travel + Leisure” calls the most visited zoo in America. Its resident pandas snare more headlines, but the zoo, which is close enough to the Pacific to occasionally capture ocean breezes, also is home to red, gray and tree kangaroos, wallaroos and rare parma wallabies. All hail from the family called macropodidae, which means animals with big feet. The hilly, densely landscaped zoo, just two miles from downtown San Diego, has ‘roos ranging from pint-sized wallabies to people-sized red kangaroos. The occasional birth of baby kangaroos prompts the immediate release of zoo announcements about the newest “joey.”
The red kangaroos at the San Francisco Zoo (sfzoo.org) can reach 5 feet tall and hop as high as 6 feet. They’re the largest of the kangaroos, and although the males are reddish in color, the females sometimes are called “blue flyers” because of their bluish-gray hue. In late 2012, travel guide producer “Lonely Planet” named perennial U.S. tourism favorite San Francisco No. 1 among the world’s cities on its “Best in Travel 2013” list. The zoo is about 12 miles from the cable cars, Chinatown, piers and trendy restaurants of downtown San Francisco.
Only about 30 miles from the San Francisco Zoo, the Oakland Zoo (oaklandzoo.org) is home to eastern wallaroos that can reach up to about 4 feet in height. These shaggy, stocky creatures can weigh 50 to 100 pounds. Bay Area basketball fans cheered when the zoo named a joey born in 2012 “Bogut,” after Golden State Warriors center and Australia native Andrew Bogut. The newer Bogut joined more than a dozen other wallaroos at the zoo’s roomy Wild Australia habitat, which opened in 2010. The zoo is located in Oakland’s Knowland Park, about 10 miles from downtown Oakland.
At the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens (lazoo.org), tammar wallabies are the smallest species of wallaby at 20 to 27 inches in length. The zoo reports that the similar-sized yellow-footed rock wallabies can nimbly jump 12 feet across rocks, using their long tails for balance. Red-necked wallabies, also called Bennett’s wallabies, can grow taller than 2 feet. This close to the movie studios, the LA Zoo, located in Griffith Park, comes with Hollywood connections. In January 2012, the zoo celebrated the 90th birthday of Betty White, co-chair of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association. The LA Zoo, about 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles, is across the street from the Autry Museum of the American West (theautry.org), named for "America’s singing cowboy,” Gene Autry.
Red kangaroos and red-necked wallabies also make their home at the Sacramento Zoo (saczoo.org) in the state’s capital. The zoo reports red-necked wallabies reportedly like to take midday naps -- in case you wonder why they’re harder to spot at lunchtime. The zoo also states they like to flirt by swishing their tails, which can trigger chase scenes or even fights involving other potential suitors. These rednecks run in a “mob,” which is what you can call any group of kangaroos. The 14-acre zoo, only about five miles from downtown Sacramento, neighbors the William Land Park children’s attractions of the storybook-inspired Fairytale Town playground and Funderland amusement park.
