Yes and no – and sort of, says Ellen Husain. Ground-dwelling kangaroos have a specialised pentapedal' locomotion, in which the tail acts like an extra leg providing forward propulsion, and the two hind legs move in unison as a hop (rather than in sequence, as when walking).
The very large hind legs, feet and muscular tail make these animals brilliantly adapted to travelling large distances at speed - a red kangaroo, for instance, can cover ym in a single bound.
They cannot do this in reverse, though sparring males can make smaller hops and shuffles backwards to dodge their opponents or avoid injury.
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Tree kangaroos, in contrast, are able to move their shorter, stockier hind limbs independently, and so can reverse down tree trunks with ease. Ancestors of all modern kangaroos were arboreal, but it seems that venturing onto the plains resulted in a giant leap - forward - for kangaroo-kind.
