The life of ... a kangaroo

Welcome back to Green World,

Today we're talking about a rather amazing animal that we've all heard of: the kangaroo.

Kangaroos are marsupials. They have powerful back legs, short front legs and a strong tail for balance. Kangaroos can weigh up to 90kg and stand over 1.80m tall. They are probably best known for leaping about on their hind legs. And for good reason, grey kangaroos can cover 9 meters in a single bound and travel at more than 55km/h. Interestingly, red kangaroos use less energy when traveling at 10km/h than when traveling at 6.5km/h.

All Kangaroos live in Australia, but different species inhabit different areas. Eastern grey kangaroos are found in eastern Australia and Tasmania. Western grey kangaroos are located on the southern coast and in the southwest of western Australia. Red kangaroos dwelll in the interior grasslands and desert while antilope kangaroos can be found on the plains of the tropical north.

They live in groups of 50 or more individuals, known as troops, herds or mobs. The individuals move at liberty, but will groom and protect each other. Their diet is herbivorous, consisting of grass, small shrubs, flowers, leaves, ferns and moss.

Kangaroos are known for having a pouch (marsupium), that the joeys live in for the first few months of their lives, but that's not the only interesting part. For a start, the gestation period is very short. In the largest species, it's still only 33 days. This means that the babies are born completely pink, helpless, blind, hairless and only 2-2.5cm long. They have to climb up their mother's short fur to reach her pouch. They do not leave the pouch for 2-4 months. Then they will come out to feed and walk around, but will always return to the safety of the pouch. After 8-10 months, they leave the pouch for the last time. Females are fully mature after 14-20 months but males take 2-4 years. Red kangaroos live for up to 23 years. Another amzing thing, is that if the mother gets pregnant again, before the first joey has fully left the pouch, she can 'freeze' the forming embryo and continue pregnancy once the first joey has left.

We hoped you enjoyed learning a bit more about these symbolic creatures.

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Sources:

https://www.bbcearth.com/news/the-strangest-life-cycles-in-nature

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/kangaroo

https://www.britannica.com/animal/kangaroo

https://www.livescience.com/27400-kangaroos.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/red-kangaroo

Images:

1: This image, owned by S J Bennett (on flickr.com) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

2: This image, owned by Pranav Bhatt (on flickr.com) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

3: This image, owned by Tatters (on flickr.com) is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Comments

Discussion || Should Everyone Switch To Electric Cars?

Hi Everyone! Thank you so much for joining me today, as I hop on the blog to discuss whether everyone switching to electric cars would really help the environment. In other words, should everyone switch to electric cars? This is the first part of a two-part series, discussing electric cars, so stay tuned for part two!! I would like to start this post by stating that I am by no means an expert. This is knowledge I have from my own experience, and from research I have done. If anything is incorrect please take it as it is and accept that this is a discussion and I am taking on board all opinions from reliable sources on this complex topic. Electric cars are a huge topic when it comes to sustainability and "saving our planet". There is no debating the fact that electric cars are better for the environment than diesel or petrol once they are on the road. But the production of them is often very polluting, with one study show

What to do if a House Plant doesn't look Healthy (top tips) || Green Pets

Hi Everyone! Today I wanted to talk about what you should do if your house plants do not look healthy, and how important it is to be flexible around looking after house plants, how changing plans can be very important in keeping your house plants healthy. By not healthy, I mean a plant that has yellowed leaves, dried leaves or is looking droopy. Recently, some of my plants haven't been doing so well either, which has been very frustrating. Here are a few things I am doing to try to change this. **Disclaimer: I am not an expert. I am just a passionate plant mum from Somerset, England and I just want to share some tips. ** 1. Research, research, research I've been collecting information on each of my house plants and trying to match the recommendations for each of the plants. I recently visited Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly, and I bought a book about how to look after house plants, which I have been using, but the

Linking climate change and inequality - 'The Great Carbon Divide'

Hey everyone, Have you heard of 'The great carbon divide‘? It is often referred to as the 'carbon footprint gap' or the 'emissions imbalance‘, and produces frightening numbers. The great carbon divide describes the huge gap between the amount of carbon dioxide the rich versus the poor emit, and these numbers shocked even us. What does this mean? There have been many different studies, and all of them show terrifying results. One study from the Guardian and Oxfam, reports that the richest 1% of the world's population emit more carbon than the poorest 66%. The richest 1% consist of 77 million people, which may seem like a lot at first, but the poorest 66% refers to over 5 billion people! Africa, which is home to 17% of the world's population, only causes 4% of the world's emissions. This top 1% emitted 16% of global CO2 emissions in 2019, that's 5.9 billion tonnes of CO2. Modelling suggests that it would take someone who isn't in the top 1% about 150

New Year's Eve 2020 Challenge!!!

Challenge New Year's Eve is only a week away now. Hundreds of people set goals for the coming year on New Year's Eve. We would like you to set some goals that are about the environment. For instance cut down on how much meat you eat or use less plastic. You can chose the easy, the normal or the hard challenge. Easy Challenge For the easy challenge you only need to set one environmental goal. Normal Challenge To complete the normal challenge you will need to set three environmental goals. Hard Challenge This one is for people who are willing to give things up for the environment. To do the hard challenge you must set five environmental goals. Completion Date 31.12. (New Year's Eve) You have one week. Other info Tell us about your goals We would love you to tell us about your goals. If you wish to share them with us: just write them in a comment. Tips Don't set goals that you know you won't be able to complete. Just

June 2021 Factfile - some news from the past month, animals and our first plant of the month!

Hi Everyone! We’re terribly sorry for missing last month’s fact file (May). We have all had a busy few months. This is actually the May fact file coming out very late. The June fact file is cancelled. Because of this, this factfile contains news from both months. We are very sorry for the delay in this post. As announced in our last factfile, this post has a new feature to it; plant of the month. We hope you'll enjoy it! News: Sierra Leone has sold a rainforest for a Chinese Harbour Sierra Leone has sold 250 acres of beach and protected rainforest for £39m to build an industrial fishing harbour. It was home to many animals, including several endangered species. This will also have a disastrous impact on local communities, tourism and as I've already mentioned, the environment. Just click here - It's an article about all the environmental disasters that happened in May. It shocked me. Red Squirrels were born

Coral reefs

Hello! We would love to introduce you to the topic of coral reefs and especially coral reef bleaching, as it is a greatly ignored but certainly significant topic. Have fun! 5 coral reef facts 1. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on the planet and is 2300 km long! 2. Less than 0.1% of the world's ocean surface is covered in coral reefs. 3. At least 25% of all marine animals live there. 4. Coral reefs are often known as the rainforests of the ocean. 5. In 1 square kilometre of coral reef, up to 35 tons of fish can be 'produced'. The 5 biggest coral reefs in the world 1. Great Barrier Reef (near Australia) 2. Red Sea Coral Reef (near Egypt, Israel and Djibouti) 3. New Caledonia Reef (Pacific Ocean near New Caledonia) 4. The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef (near Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras) 5. Florida Reef (Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico near Florida) What is coral? Coral is actually made up of small anim

Climate change: what is it and what's the problem

Hello, I've noticed that we are always mentioning climate change. Not only us blog editors but also politicians, activists and so on. The words climate change are bounced around in the media and probably in your households, but do you actually know what it is or how it works? I know that for a long time, I didn't know what it really meant. I hope that this post changes that. What is climate change and how does it work? The words climate change describe a slow shift in the earth's temperature and changes in the weather patterns. Having a single warm winter does not instantly mean climate change. Climate change happens over a long period of time. If you look at a temperature graph over the years, it doesn't go up in one day and then stay the same for another hundred years. It curves up slowly but steadily. This is a average temperature graph from 1880 to just after 2000. You can see how the temperature gradually gets warmer.

November Top Tips | sustainable activities and hobbies

Hello everyone, So this week, we are going to be talking about sustainable free time activities. This area can quite big when it comes to environmental impact, so here are some things that you can do in your free time, that are more sustainable. 1. Reading So reading is one of our favourite things to do. However, books are made of paper and the paper industry isn't great. Some ways you can get around this is by reading online (for example, on a kindle), or through borrowing books from a library or using book boxes. If there aren't any in your area then at least try to support independent bookshops! 2. Running If you love being active then this one is for you. Running is probably one of the most sustainable forms of sport. All you need are some running shoes and somewhere to run. There is obviously more high-tech gear but that isn't really necessary if it's just a hobby. 3. Gardening If you've got a small area of land o

The Responsible Traveller by Karen Edwards || a practical guide to reducing your environmental and social impact // BOOK REVIEW

HI Everyone! Our January monthly post was a zero-waste challenge, but as we explained in our 2023 wrap up , this year we will be alternating a monthly challenge with a book review, of course related to the environment. This week, I'm going to share a recommendation for a fantastic book, all about how you can travel more sustainably and responsibly. I absolutely love travelling, but I'm also very aware of the impact it has on the world, and I am very keen to learn more about how I can further reduce my impact. That's why I bought this book around a year ago, and I've really enjoyed reading it and learning from it. This is a practical, small-format guide, sharing both basic information about the climate crisis and the impact of various travel activities, and how you can do your bit. It shares specific journeys that are more environmentally friendly options, for example long distance train journeys such as The Alaskan Railroad with its stunning alpine forests and wide ar

March Top Tips // 10 little things you can avoid in daily life

Welcome to the Top Tips this month! We'll be talking about 10 things you can avoid using in everyday life. We know it's a really simple topic, but it can actually make quite a difference. The avoidable stuff will be things many use because they look nice or taste nice or similar, but aren't actually necessary. We will also write a couple of facts on these things, and give ideas on how you could substitute them if possible. Many might be very obvious, but think about it, do you actually not use them? Have fun! Chewing Gum Most people would not be surprised when told that lots of chewing gum have synthetic colouring and flavouring. However, most people would be surprised when told that chewing gum is largely made of plastic. What the companies call the "gum base" is plastic and partly made of the same stuff plastic bags are made of. The gum contains microplastics that, if you spit your gum on the ground often tend to get into the oce

Green World

Search This Blog