National Geographic: Australias Animal Mysteries Page #3

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may well help determine the

future of his kind.

Perhaps the very symbol of Australia,

the kangaroo remains as fascinating today

as when the first live specimen

reached England in the 1700s.

A handbill announcing the

event proclaimed that

"to enumerate its extraordinary

Qualities would far exceed

the common Limits of a Public Notice".

Now, almost two centuries later,

a rare piece of film documents

one of the kangaroo's most

extraordinary qualities of all.

After a gestation period

of about a month,

this red kangaroo prepares to give birth.

Though scientists now understand

the biology of marsupial birth,

it is no less remarkable to behold.

All marsupials are born in an

undeveloped state,

their growth to be completed

inside the pouch.

Defenseless and blind,

the tiny newborn,

completely unaided by the mother,

must navigate through her

thick fur toward the pouch.

If it loses its way, it will die.

Once inside the pouch,

guided only by its sense of smell,

the newborn finds one of the

mother's nipples.

Here it will remain attached,

suckling for more than six months.

Now the joey will be strong enough to

leave the pouch intermittently.

But even when it is old enough to graze,

it will return to the pouch to nurse

for several months more.

Amazing in their adaptability, some

kangaroos are as at home in the trees

as others are bounding

across rocky slopes.

There are about 50 species

of kangaroos in Australia

ranging from up to seven feet in

height to the size of a common rat.

But one trait they all

share is that they hop.

Though it may weigh

as much as 200 pounds,

the kangaroo is a picture of grace

when it takes to flight.

It can reach speed up to

and cover as much as 25 feet in one leap.

Recently scientists were amazed to

discover that, at certain speeds,

the kangaroo actually uses less

oxygen the faster it goes.

It was found that,

like the spring in a pogo stick,

the kangaroo's leg muscles and

tendons store energy,

which is then released without effort

when the animal next pushes off.

Though the kangaroo is no doubt the

most famous marsupial,

Australia boasts as many as

The ferocious-looking Tasmanian Devil

is one of the few

that eat meat exclusively.

Once can only imagine the astonishment

of early explorers

when they saw a pouched

animal take to the air.

These possums do not

actually fly like birds,

but their kite-like membrane enables

them to glide

for distances of 40 yards or more.

Only in small patches of Western

Australia will one find the numbat,

a small, gentle marsupial now extinct

in other parts of the country.

With sharp claws the numbat roots

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