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Look who's up a tree! - tree kangaroos
Ranger Rick, April, 1995
Look--way up there! It's a monkey, it's a bear . . . no, it's a kangaroo!
A kangaroo?
Yup. A tree kangaroo, that is.
Most people would recognize a regular kangaroo. You know--pouch, big feet, hops around a lot. Tree kangaroos are relatives of regular kangaroos. And they really aren't that different. Just imagine a regular kangaroo. Now give it longer front legs, shorter hind legs, and make its tail longer than its body. And--oh, yeah-- look up!
FAMILY ROOTS IN THE BRANCHES
So why do these kangaroos live in trees? Scientists aren't sure. But they do know this:
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Millions of years ago, the great-great-many-great grandparents of all kangaroos lived in trees. But for some reason, after a long, long time, they moved to the ground and became regular kangaroos.
Then, millions of years later, some of these ground roos hopped back up into the trees again. They stayed there. And over millions of more years, they became the tree kangaroos of today.
AT EASE IN THE TREES
You won't find any tree kangaroos climbing around in your neighborhood. They live in only two places in the world: the rainforests of northeastern Australia and the rainforests of New Guinea, a big island north of Australia.
The smallest tree kangaroos are a little bigger than a large raccoon. The biggest are about the size of a large dog. And they're all specially built for life among the leaves. They have strong legs for leaping from branch to branch. And even though they don't do it very often, they can leap to the ground from amazing heights--sometimes as high as 60 feet (18 m). That's like jumping off the roof of a six-story building!
Thick pads on the bottoms of the kangaroos' feet soften the landing when they jump. These rough pads also give the roos a non- slip grip when climbing. And their long, curved claws help them hang on.
As a roo moves around in a tree, it often presses its tail against branches to keep its balance. But tree kangaroos can't curl their tails around branches and hang on the way some monkeys can.
YAHOO--A NEW ROO!
Until just two years ago, people thought there were only nine species (kinds) of tree kangaroos. Then a scientist found another one!
This species of tree kangaroo is a little different from the others. For one thing, it's black and white. The other kinds of tree kangaroos are mostly brown, gray, or reddish.
The new kangaroo is different from its cousins in another way. It spends more time on the ground than in the trees, but it can climb when it wants to.
Most other species of tree kangaroos spend almost all of their lives in the trees. But some will climb down to the ground to look for food.
The roos always climb down a tree trunk backward rather than headfirst. To climb back up, they spring two to three feet (60 to 90 cm) off the ground and onto the trunk. Then they dig in their claws and climb up, up, up.
SNOOZING AND SNACKING
So what's life like for a tree kangaroo? Well, if you're lazy, you'll probably think a tree roo's life is pretty good. That's because, better than anything else, tree roos like to snooze! Any time of day and many times a day, that's what they do. They don't nap in a nest or have a regular sleeping place. Any fork in a tree will do for a sleepy roo.
When they're awake, tree roos are usually busy with their second-favorite activity: eating. They eat off and on, around the clock. Nice, juicy leaves are the main thing on their menu, sometimes with a "side order" of fruit or bark.
GROWING UP ROO STYLE
Most grown-up tree kangaroos like to hang out by themselves. But when tree roos are babies (called joeys), they spend all of their time hanging out with Mom. Or you might say hanging in, since, like all kangaroos, young tree roos grow up inside a pouch on their mother's belly.
A newborn tree kangaroo is less than an inch (2.5 cm) long. But as soon as it's born, this tiny joey has a big job ahead of it.
Without its mother's help, the newborn joey has to crawl all the way across her belly and find the opening to her pouch. And its eyes aren't even open yet! Once the joey's inside the pouch, it has to find a nipple to feed from. After that, the baby's hard work is done. It stays safe, warm, and well fed in the pouch, growing bigger each day.
A baby roo doesn't have to share its pouch with "roo-mates." Mother kangaroos usually have just one joey at a time. If they had more, that pouch would get mighty crowded after a while!
HELLO, WORLD!
After many months, the joey starts peeking out of the pouch to see the world around it. It learns which food is good to eat by watching its mother. For the next few months, it comes out of her pouch to explore, but it crawls back inside when it's time to nurse and sleep.
When the time is finally right, the joey leaves the pouch for good. But it will stay with Mom for up to another year. After that, it will live on its own--leaping, sleeping, and nibbling through its days--the tree kangaroo way.
All tree kangaroos carry their young in pouches. This Matschie's (MAT-sheez) tree kangaroo baby will leave the pouch when it's about 10 months old. The young Goodfellow's kangaroo at right is big enough to explore the trees with Mom.
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