National Geographic: Kangaroo Comeback Page #3

---

They look ungainly moving

at slower speeds

Young males play-fight for

hours each day

This comical pair probably

won't hurt each other

but someday, they may fight

in earnest for mating rights

Though he's still nursing

Joey wants to try a mouthful

of grass

and gets a thorn in the nose

for his trouble

It will be a while before he's

tuned to this landscape

but he just learned a valuable lesson

He turns to a more familiar source

But Mother isn't her usual

welcoming self

She controls her pouch with

powerful muscles

and easily ejects her joey

His weaning has begun

From now on, he'll do more of his

feeding from outside

In time, Joey will join these

sparring matches

Using their tails for balance

the young kangaroos stand upright

wrestling with forearms and pawing

at heads and shoulders

They throw their heads back

protecting themselves

from sharp claws

A passing eagle, headed back

to a recent kill

stops to survey the scene

Her arrival sends Joey diving head

first into the pouch

All the kangaroos are wary

But with hungry chicks to feed

the eagle returns to the dead joey

Apart from human hunters

only the eagle and the dingo now

regularly pursue red kangaroos

But huge lizards and even marsupial

lions may have fed on Joey's ancestors

Giants once roamed this landscape

Their legacy today is a ferocious

flesh-eating marsupial now found

only on Australia's companion

island Tasmania

Not known for their table manners

Tasmanian devils snarl

and snap even

when there's plenty to go around

The devils are gorging on

a mid-sized kangaroo

usually called a wallaby

And the ruckus alerts another

kangaroo cousin

that it's time to take cover

This little hopper is

a Tasmanian bettong

Her youngster, too large

for the pouch

keeps to the nest when

she forages

The smaller devil, a female

also has young who have grown

too large for her pouch

From the safety of a hollow log

the young ones wait impatiently

for their dinner

As quiet settles on the forest

the sprightly bettongs get back

to business

Hopping probably originated

in kangaroos like these:

Perhaps the motion confused predators

giving the small 'roos a chance

at escape

But it was on the open plains

that the kangaroos' singular way

of getting

about probably came into its own

Scientists know that hopping can be

far more efficient than running

When a kangaroo hits the ground

its hind legs store energy like

compacted springs

The energy helps propel the kangaroo

upwards for the next hop

The motion also accordions the

'roo's lungs in and out

so the animal wastes no effort

while breathing

Scientists haven't solved the mystery

of how kangaroos went

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes