Marsupials have a pouch located on the female’s abdominal
area and it is part of the reproductive system, providing a space for the newborn to mature. Once in side the pouch,
the young attaches itself to one of the nipples and remains until it is well formed and much larger. Marsupials
range from mouse size to the red kangaroo that can stand 2 metres tall (7 feet)
Full time mother
Adult females have
the ability to be constantly pregnant and lactating from first pregnancy until death. Oh my goodness.
Kangaroos and wallabies are born without hind
legs?
The mother produces a joey about the size of a lima bean. It finds it way through the mothers
hair to the pouch, a strenuous journey that takes about three minutes. To find its way, the joey uses its sense of smell
and built-in gravity receptors (located in the middle ear)--the only two senses that are functional at this point. It really
is only an embryo blind and hairless with two stubby arms and no hind legs.
When it finds a nipple, the joey latches on and stays physically
fused for four to five weeks. Usually the newborn is alone; twins are extremely rare. But while a newborn is attached,
an older sibling that has left the pouch and is not yet weaned may poke its head in to feed. Each of the offspring feeds only
from its own individual teat and the two teats each supply different mixes of nutrients depending on the age of the young.
Now that is a great design.
185 – 298 days later the joey emerges from the pouch,
If it does not choose to leave by its own free will, the mother can contract the pouch and tip the joey out. What a
handy device for when your children are too comfortable at home.
Koalas - Back ward facing
The
pouch of a Koalas faces backwards The joey stays in the pouch for about 6 or 7 months, drinking only milk. Before
it can tolerate gum leaves, which are toxic for most mammals, the joey must feed on a substance called ‘pap’,
which is a specialised form of the mother’s droppings that is soft and runny. This allows the mother to pass on to the
joey special micro-organisms from her intestine which are necessary for it to be able to digest the gum leaves. It feeds on
this for a
period of up to a few weeks, just prior to leaving the pouch.
No Drinking
Koalas don’t normally need to drink as they get all the
moisture they need from the gum leaves. However, they can drink if necessary, such as in times of drought when the leaves
may not contain sufficient moisture.
Echidna: What a weird and wonderful animal.
A single soft-shelled egg is deposited directly into the pouch
and hatches after 10 days. A baby echidna is called a puggle. The echidna does not have teats and the puggle clings to
specialised hairs within the pouch, where it suckles milk
oozing from the mother's mammary glands. (It came as no
surprise to me that my computer's dictionary did not include puggle. Now it does.
The initially tiny young has an incredible growth rate, increasing
its body weight up to 500-fold in the first 45 days of life. It is born completely hairless but is covered with short
spines when it leaves the pouch. Probably not soon enough for the mother. According to the research when
the young becomes too big to carry about, it is left in a burrow and the mother returns every five or six days to nurse her
offspring until it is six months old. It must be very rich milk to sustain it for so long between feeding.
Duck Billed Platypus.
Koalas and kangaroos have true pouches but not so the
duck billed platypus, also a mammal. Females usually lay two eggs at a time, but sometimes they lay one egg or three, which
are about 11 mm (7/16 inch) in diameter. After laying her eggs, the female curls around them. The incubation period is separated
into three parts. In the first, the embryo has no functional organs and relies on the yolk sac for respiration. During
the second, the fingers and toes appear, and in the last, the egg tooth appears. When the eggs hatch after an
incubation period of roughly ten days, the small hairless young cling to the mother. The newly hatched
platypuses are vulnerable,
blind, and nude, and are fed by the mother's milk. Although she does not have nipples, the milk is released through
pores in her abdomen. There are grooves on her abdomen that form pools of milk, allowing the young platypuses to lap
up the milk. After the eggs hatch, the mother leaves the
burrow only for short periods of time to feed and wet her fur.When
the mother leaves her young, she plugs the entrance with soil to protect her offspring. The offspring are suckled for three
to four months after they have hatched. They leave the burrow when they are seventeen weeks old.
Ardea wildlife pets environment
To see an amazing photo of a newborn koala
in the pouch, go to this site http://www.ardea.com and type in the search box "newborn koala. "
