Friday, April 17, 2009

Wallaby reproduction


After the possum Birth, I thought share this photo of a wallaby teat. Marsupials are different in many ways to other mammals. One way is that in wallabies & kangeroos the joey only drinks from one nipple. When the joey first reaches the pouch it attaches to the teat and cannot be separated from it. As the joey grows so does the teat. As you can see in this photo it becomes quite long by the time the joey leaves the pouch. Next to it you can see the other three teats that are still quite small. At this stage they can have a second joey at the jelly bean stage attached to one of the small teats, with another one hopping along beside mum who drinks only from the longer one, jumping back into the pouch for the occasional feed. The teats return to the normal size when not in use. Amazingly the milk in each teat is different depending on the age of the joey drinking from it so that it ensure the right level of nutrition for the right joey. Even more amazingly they can even have a third joey in suspended animation inside the mothers womb at the same time.

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