Scribd
Upload
76 views3 pages

Kangaroo Reproduction and Life Cycle

Kangaroo reproduction involves a very short gestation period of only 33 days for the largest species. When born, the neonate is tiny, blind and hairless, and crawls into its mother's pouch where it fastens onto a teat to feed. While in the pouch, it grows rapidly over 190 days until it emerges fully at around 235 days. The mother can become pregnant with a second joey even before the first emerges from the pouch.

Uploaded by

hasnah16may
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
76 views3 pages

Kangaroo Reproduction and Life Cycle

Kangaroo reproduction involves a very short gestation period of only 33 days for the largest species. When born, the neonate is tiny, blind and hairless, and crawls into its mother's pouch where it fastens onto a teat to feed. While in the pouch, it grows rapidly over 190 days until it emerges fully at around 235 days. The mother can become pregnant with a second joey even before the first emerges from the pouch.

Uploaded by

hasnah16may
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

KANGAROO Reproduction and life cycle

Kangaroo reproduction is similar to that of opossums. The egg (still contained in the evolutionary remnant of a shell, a few micrometres thick, and with only a small quantity of yolk within it) descends from the ovary into the uterus. There it is fertilised and quickly develops into a neonate. Even in the largest kangaroo (the red kangaroo) the neonate emerges after only 33 days. Usually only one young is born at a time. It is blind, hairless and only a few centimetres long; its hind legs are mere stumps; it instead uses its more developed forelegs to climb its way through the thick fur on its mother's abdomen into the pouch, which takes about three to five minutes. Once in the pouch, it fastens onto one of the four teats and starts to feed. Almost immediately, the mother's sexual cycle starts again. Another egg descends into the uterus and she becomes sexually receptive. Then, if she mates and a second egg is fertilised, its development is temporarily halted. Meanwhile, the neonate in the pouch grows rapidly. After about 190 days, the baby (called a joey) is sufficiently large and developed to make its full emergence out of the pouch, after sticking its head out for a few weeks until it eventually feels safe enough to fully emerge. From then on, it spends increasing time in the outside world and eventually, after about 235 days, it leaves the pouch for the last time.
[35]

The average lifespan of kangaroos averages at 6 years in the

wild[36] to in excess of 20 years in captivity, varying by species.[37] Most individuals, however, do not reach maturity in the wild.[38][39]

Newborn joey sucking on a teat in the pouch

Kangaroos have large, powerful hind legs, large feet adapted for leaping, a long muscular tail for balance, and a small head. Like most marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch called a marsupium in which joeys complete postnatal development.

You might also like