Status
Habitat
Range
Group
Above a certain speed, hopping costs less energy the faster it goes.
The hind legs work as springs. Tendon stores and returns elastic energy on each bounce, so oxygen consumption stays flat as speed rises across a broad range — the opposite of a running mammal. For an animal that must cover ground between scattered rain, it is the correct machinery.
Reproduction is equally opportunistic. A female can hold a fertilised embryo in suspended development until conditions improve, carry a joey in the pouch, and suckle an older one at heel, producing two milks of different composition simultaneously. In severe drought the whole sequence simply pauses.
The open shelf
More frames of the red kangaroo
Streamed live from the Commons Quality Images archive, eighteen at a time. Tap any frame to study it — each remains its photographer’s.
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