Page 33 - Mammal (DK Eyewitness)

KANGAROOS AND WALLABIES An even earlier birth
This mother red-necked (or Bennett’s) wallaby
with her joey (baby) is a typical member of the
kangaroo and wallaby family. There are about Only three of the 4,000 or so mammal species lay
50 species in the family, out of the 120 or so eggs. These are the platypus of Australia, the
marsupial species found in Australia. There is no short-beaked echidna of Australia and New
real difference between a kangaroo and a Guinea, and the long-beaked echidna of New
wallaby: larger species tend to be called Guinea. They are the only members of the Order Platypus head
kangaroos, and smaller ones wallabies. The
scientific name for the family is Macropodidae, Monotremata (p. 8), the egg-laying mammals.
which means “big feet.” This reflects the way When the white, leathery-shelled
they move - bounding along in great leaps on eggs hatch, about two weeks after
the huge feet, using the tail as a counterbalance. laying, the young feed on mother’s
Some large kangaroos can travel at 40 mph
(nearly 65 km/h). When grazing on plants (all milk. The milk oozes from enlarged
kangaroos and wallabies are herbivorous) they pores on to the skin, where the Echidna head
move slowly, resting their tails and front paws babies drink it; monotremes have
on the ground as they swing the back legs no teats (p. 36). Echidna
forward. At rest, they sit back on their tails or lie egg
lazily in the shade of a tree. The red-necked
wallaby was one of the first marsupials seen by MARSUPIAL MONKEY?
Europeans, when the British First Fleet anchored Some opossums - marsupials of the
in Sydney Cove in 1788. Its traditional name is Americas - look rather like monkeys;
the “brusher,” since it prefers brush and wooded but they are not closely related
areas rather than more open country. The four- except by both being mammals. This
month-old joey is now beginning to leave his woolly opossum lives in the tropical
mother. But at the first sign of danger he hops forests of Central America and
back to the safety of the pouch. He leaves the northern South America. Like a
pouch at nine months, but will not be weaned monkey it has large, forward-facing
(p. 33) until about 12 months old. eyes, to judge distances accurately as
it moves through the branches. It
also has a prehensile tail, like some
South American monkeys. It is a fruit
and nectar feeder, like many
monkeys. Yet its breeding is typically
marsupial. After birth, the babies
hold on to the teats in the pouch
continually. As they grow, they are
able to clamber around on their
mother and get a ride.

After its epic journey to the
pouch, the developing kangaroo
attaches itself to the teat and LOST FOR EVER?
suckles milk (p. 36), just like The thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, is a striped, wolf-like marsupial. Or rather it was, since it is
any other mammal probably extinct. The last captive thylacine died in 1936 in Hobart Zoo, Tasmania. From 1938
these creatures were protected by law, having been hunted for their raids on sheep and poultry.
Possible sightings are reported now and again in Tasmania’s wild hill country, and even on
mainland Australia, but many naturalists believe this marsupial has gone forever.

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