Kangaroos, Koalas & Emus
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Martin Hash
- Posts: 18725
- Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:02 pm
Kangaroos, Koalas & Emus
Islands that have unique animals amaze me. The Galapagos Islands are the most famous, and Madagascar is the most exotic but Australia, an entire continent, isn't far behind. Madagascar has lemurs and Australia has marsupials, the ones with the pouches. In the wild, my wife, Gwynne & I, saw Red Kangaroos, tall ones, much taller than me, lots of wallabies, several mobs of emus running across the road, and Koala Bears in trees. (Only saw wombats & platypuses in zoos.) There's a whole vernacular for kangaroos, “roos.” Males are boomers, bucks, jacks and old men. Females are jills, flyers and does. All baby kangaroos are joeys. A bunch of kangaroos is a troop or court.
I also got into Googling emus to see how they compared to the other big, flightless birds around the world. Emus are more closely related to cassowaries in South America than ostriches from Africa. Moas are recently extinct but were from New Zealand. Elephant Birds of Madagascar, the largest of them, is also recently extinct. Turns out their closest relative is the little kiwi from Australia. And rounding out the list, Rheas, are also from South America.
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