Woman Opens Up A Kangaroos Pouch And Shows How A Baby Kangaroo Grows
Unless you live in Australia, you may not be all that familiar with kangaroos. You’ve seen them in zoos and you know enough about them to recognize them, but there are many things that you don’t know about them as well.
Thanks for the kind folks at Animal EDventure Park, however, you are about to know more about them. That sanctuary, located in Boynton Beach, Florida, is responsible for rescuing and adopting many animals.
They even take care of kangaroos.
The park wanted to educate people on how a mother kangaroo supports the growth of a Joey. It’s a beautiful thing to see.
In case you aren’t familiar with it, Joey is the name for a baby kangaroo. When they are born, they are underdeveloped. They have no limbs or hair and are blind and deaf.
At first, a Joey will stay in the birth canal but eventually, they will move up into the pouch. At that point, they begin to develop.
Kangaroos will give birth to Joeys that are only an inch or so long. They weigh less than a gram, and the mother needs to care for them. They do have claws in their front feet, but they don’t have much else.
After the Joey reaches the mother’s pouch, it spends about two months feeding inside. It will wait until it is up to 11 months old before it eventually leaves the pouch.
Even after they go out, they will continue to come back to feed on their mother’s milk. Red kangaroos, for example, may be out of the pouch at eight months but they will continue for up to four more months to suckle.
Gray kangaroos will stay in the pouch until they are 11 months but will suckle until they are 18 months old.
When they are in the pouch, their limbs continue to grow and they grow hair and eyes. It isn’t long before the almost unrecognizable Joey has grown into a little kangaroo.
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Over time, they will continue to spend more time out of the pouch. They will return when they want to feed or sleep and they count on the mother for protection.
