Mammal

Red Kangaroo

The red kangaroo, an iconic marsupial of Australia, is distinguished by its reddish fur and powerful leap, illustrating the unique fauna of this continent where it moves with agility through vast arid landscapes.

Mammal and marsupial

Guided by its sense of smell

It is a mammal (which therefore feeds its young with milk) but it is also a marsupial (therefore the young is born in an embryonic, immature state and continues its development in a pouch, rather than inside its mother’s belly).

After only 33 days, the embryonic young is born, tiny, blind and weighing just one gram!

Undoubtedly guided by its sense of smell, it clings all alone to its mother’s coat and climbs into the ventral pouch where it is able to suckle its mother’s milk and stay for a period of eight months. Then, like a second birth, it comes out, leaps for the first time and starts to browse on the grass. But it still regularly returns into that pouch, where it is safe and sound.