A baby kangaroo, or joey, pokes its head out of its mother's pouch to reflect on life and see what is happening in the world.
Abdominal pouches as child-rearing tools are the baliwick of all marsupial species – from possums to koalas and bandicoots. The most famous of the baby holster-wielding mothers, however, is the kangaroo.
Kangaroos are native to Australia and New Guinea; The kangaroo is so archetypically Australian that it adorns the country's coat of arms. One of the first things any human child with an alphabet book learns about kangaroos is that their name begins with a “K” and that a small kangaroo head usually protrudes from the adult kangaroo's abdomen.
Well, both things are true, but there is some context to consider. Firstly, kangaroos do not have two heads, one at the level of the navel and the other at the top of the shoulders; the kangaroo mother sports a large pocket essential for nursing, protecting and carrying her baby, called a joey. Secondly, not all kangaroos have pouches – only the females, who do 99% of raising their children. Kangaroos live in large groups called mobs, and males contribute by acting as bodyguards for mothers and babies.
Nothing like a nice hot pack
Kangaroo pouches function exclusively as containers for babies. They are very hot inside – about 40.5 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit) – and contain four nipples and two milk ducts on each side. They are expandable and can make room for two cubs of different ages at the same time, as cubs stay with their mothers for about five months, and a female can give birth to up to four cubs per year.
“Normally, a kangaroo's pouch is dry, slightly furry, and has a dry, scaly, rusty/brown substance that is a natural antifungal and antibacterial substance,” says Katrina McCauley, assistant curator at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium at Australia . and the Islands region.
The temperature inside a kangaroo's pouch is close to a toasty 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
The pouch is also essential for the joey's pregnancy. A kangaroo mother gives birth vaginally to an incredibly small and underdeveloped baby after just 33 days of gestation. The baby is pink, completely hairless and only the size of her little fingernail, and climbs up the mother's belly into the pouch, where it will remain for four and a half to five months.
“When the puppies are born, they attach themselves to one of the teats and fuse with it until they become more developed,” says McCauley. “Kangaroo females produce different compositions of milk as their cubs age, furthermore, females can produce two different compositions of milk based on the age of their cubs. A female can have a young 'on foot,' a younger young in the pouch, and hold a blastocyst in embryonic diapause [keeping a fertilized egg dormant while waiting] after mating.”
A female kangaroo is extremely efficient when it comes to reproduction. She can control when she becomes pregnant and only needs to mate once a year, fertilizing up to four eggs at once. One of the eggs can implant, while the other three sit around waiting for their turn. During periods of drought or low food supply, dormant eggs may wait until the mother decides conditions are favorable enough to raise another hatchling and allow one of them to implant.
What about household chores?
Babies do everything in the bag, including using the bathroom. That's a lot of action for a pouch – the technical name for a kangaroo pouch – to handle, and it takes a little housekeeping to keep it cool and clean.
“Kangaroos clean their pouch, but I personally haven't noticed it regularly,” says McCauley. “When a kangaroo is preparing to give birth, we see an increase in the number of females tending its pouch. We also see an increase in grooming when a kangaroo is developed enough to leave the pouch. they are standing, sticking their snouts in the bag.
Now this is interesting
Kangaroos are incredibly fast — according to National Geographic, they can jump at more than 40 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour) in short bursts — and a baby needs the protection of its mother's pouch until it can keep up with her blistering pace. .
