Why kangaroos carry their young in a pouch
A newborn kangaroo is the size of a jellybean and climbs to the pouch alone. This explainer follows the whole journey, and why the pouch beats a longer pregnancy.
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Transcript
TINY BIRTH AND CRAWL
Kangaroos are Australian marsupials with one remarkable feature.
The mother carries her baby in a pouch on her belly.
A kangaroo baby is born at thirty-three days after mating.
It is tiny, barely two centimetres long, blind, and hairless.
The tiny baby crawls out and climbs up through its mother's fur.
It crawls toward warmth and the smell of milk.
POUCH ENTRY AND MILK
The baby reaches the pouch, a fold of skin on the mother's belly.
It crawls inside and attaches to a milk nipple.
Inside the pouch it stays warm, protected, and fed.
DEVELOPMENT
The baby spends six months in the pouch, drinking milk.
It grows fur, opens its eyes, and grows strong.
By six months it is ready to hop out.
It returns to the pouch at night for another three months.
MARSUPIAL VS PLACENTAL
Kangaroos are marsupials, not placental mammals like humans.
They give birth to babies too tiny to survive outside.
The pouch protects and feeds the baby until it is ready.
WHY THE POUCH WORKS
The pouch solves a problem: the baby is born too soon.
Inside the pouch, the baby stays warm, fed, and safe.
This lets the mother move and forage across the Australian savannah.
The pouch is a second womb outside the body.
CLOSING
Kangaroos have a pouch because they are born too tiny and too soon.
The pouch is a safe chamber where the baby finishes growing.
Early birth lets the mother bear more young in her lifetime.
Every sentence above was written before a single picture was drawn, then each object it names was painted for this video alone.
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