Marsupials and Platypus

Marsupials are mammals that give birth to tiny young, which spend the first part of their lives in their mother’s pouch – such as the kangaroo with her young (called a ‘joey’) in the picture on the right6 The baby kangaroo measures only 2.5 cm at birth, and is carried in the mother’s pouch for 6-8 months. Half of the world’s species of marsupials are found only in Australia or Papua New Guinea. Other Australia marsupials include wombats and koalas. Koalas live, eat and sleep in the braches of eucalyptus trees, only coming down to move to another tree. Eucalyptus leaves are the koalas’s main source of both food and water.
Platypus
The platypus is only found in Australia and Tasmania and it must be one of the world’s strangest animals. In fact, the first time the preserved body of a platypus was taken to Britain, scientists there refused to believe that it was real!
Strang – but true …
• It’s a mammal – but it lays eggs
• It eats its own weight in food, every day! It swims underwater to catch frogs, shellfish and worms on the bottom of rivers and streams
• It has a bill and webbed feet, like a duck; soft fur and a flat tail; and the male has claws on back legs tipped with a powerful poison.