Which are bigger, wallabies or kangaroos?
The living world
130
A marsupial is a mammal
with a pocket
called a pouch
for carrying
its babies in.
Marsupials
Dorian’s tree
kangaroo:
this small
kangaroo can climb trees.
Numbat:
this marsupial
has the most teeth of any
mammal. It has 52.
Rabbit-eared
bandicoot:
is a
burrower with big ears.
More marsupials
Apart from a few that
live in South America,
almost all marsupials
come from Australasia.
They vary a lot in looks.
Koala
Koalas look like little bears.
They live in Australia and
are the only animal that eats
eucalyptus leaves. They are so
hard to digest that koalas spend
19 hours of the day sleeping
to let their tummies settle.
Little devil
The Tasmanian devil is not much
bigger than a small dog but is very
aggressive. It is the biggest meat-
eating marsupial and has
such powerful jaws that
it can eat an entire
animal – bones
and all!
When the baby koala
gets too big for the
pouch, it clings to its
mother’s back instead.
Bouncing marsupials
Kangaroos cannot walk.
Instead they have enormous
back legs that they use to
jump everywhere. They
can move very fast just
by leaping.
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an expert
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Australia
128-129
The world
of mammals
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