The red kangaroo powerful, comical
engaging this is the desert dwelling symbol of Australia
But kangaroos can be found almost anywhere down under
They're up in trees
...on the forest floor
...and can even be found on the rocks
But all the kangaroos face danger
This is the story of a mother and her Joey
and how he comes into his own
There is tenderness here in the desert
and the harsh reality of survival
Persecuted by some, revered by others
the red kangaroo has astonishing tales to tell
This is Australia, the driest inhabited continent on earth
Sixty million years ago
this land began its final break from the rest of the world
evolving along a path all its own
Today, its vast, open interior lies naked in the sun
a land from another place in time
It's unforgiving here, not for the faint of heart
and survival means marching to a different beat
But this dry, hostile landscape is not devoid of life
it's home to one of the most astonishing creatures on earth
angaroos live in New Guinea and Australia
yet their name is known far and wide
But while the world may know a 'roo when it sees one
to science, they're still something of a riddle
You might think nothing this big is supposed to hop
But kangaroos do it with speed and agility
Six-foot marvels of efficient locomotion
they emerged from the rain forest
then spread over a continent while adapting to desert heat
This is the story of the red kangaroo
an amazing tale from the land down under
It's summertime in the outback
And the 'roos can be found where there is food
Most red kangaroos are red in name only the females
and youngsters tend to be gray
The 'roos look like they're congregating in groups
but it's food, not the company
that draws them together
For kangaroos
the most powerful social bond is between a mother and her young
And like many of Australia's astonishing mammals
joeys are raised in a pouch
They spend the first eight months of their fascinating lives
living in a built-in nursery
This youngster needs a taste of life outside the pouch
his mother's nearly bursting at the seams
A wedgetailed eagle waits for his debut
but it's not here to wish him good luck
Joey doesn't care who's in attendance
He's not in a hurry to come out
His mother has other ideas
She dumps him out in a tangled heap
For the first time he sets foot in the world
But the place is not to his liking
The eagle watches his entrance and exit
It's following the show with keen eyes
A six-foot wingspan and powerful talons
make the wedgetail a dangerous observer
For young kangaroos that are clumsy or careless
death can descend from the sky
Shade is precious in the desert heat
To cool themselves, kangaroos lick their skin
where blood vessels run close to the surface
Getting comfortable can be a bigger problem especially
with a pouch full to the brim
A joey's world revolves around its mother relationships
don't get much closer than this
The kangaroos languish
lt'll be nightfall before there's any relief from the heat
This old male decides to lay down afternoon stakes
he's digging a hollow to rest his giant hips
For the joey, a tail in the face is worth the security of the pouch
He's safe from predators
and free to keep an eye on the goings on
His mother's portable nursery
the hallmark of most marsupials
originated in the dinosaur age
One hundred million years ago rain forest blanketed this land
Only small slivers of green still remain
lush shrinking Edens clinging to an island continent's edges
In places no more than 30 miles wide
these ancient rain forests are endangered
But it was in places like these
that tiny marsupials first made their Australian appearance
Exactly how they lived in this isolated world
is a subject for debate
But there's no dispute that evidence of marsupial origins
can still be found here today
The kangaroo's ancestors started out in trees much
like this mountain brushtailed possum
which moves through the branches on all fours
The first marsupials did raise their young in a pouch
but a tree-bound existence made them different in many ways
angaroo ancestors were probably good climbers with long toes
sharp claws, and prehensile tails
They may have started out as leaf-eaters
but leaves are low in nutrition and difficult to digest
So perhaps Joey's ancestors ventured out of the trees
in search of sweeter stuff
The dinosaurs were gone by then but other
deadly reptiles remained
This carpet python is looking for a meal
And possums have long been a favorite
The possum's keen hearing is no match for such stealth
The possum escapes with little more than a good scare
but next time, its luck may not hold
It was 15 million years ago
when the kangaroo's ancestors moved down to the forest floor
Here beneath the canopy shaded from heat
many animals are active all day
And in this rich, green, jungle store
there's something for everyone to eat
The musky rat-kangaroo is the smallest
and most primitive of Joey's living relatives
Weighing in at only one pound
it's the only kangaroo that doesn't hop
Rat kangaroos live mainly on the ground
They don't use those tails for climbing
but for gathering nest-building materials
And those long, grasping toes are great
for handling a fruit and insect based diet
Another ancient denizen of the forest arrives
and the little rat kangaroo beats a hasty retreat
The cassowary is an unusual animal
that has changed little in millions of years
These large, flightless birds can be over five feet tall
and it's the males that look after the young
Shy birds, these giants shrink from confrontation
unless there's a threat to their young
Using their huge claws
cassowaries have been known to kill humans in defense of their chicks
But this primeval world where kangaroos evolved
has been disappearing from Australia for millennia
And most kangaroos have long since adapted to harsher stuff
Out in the bush, the days of high summer have passed
The red kangaroos are more active during the day
But our joey still spends most of his time in the pouch
Older ones are venturing out to enjoy the cooler weather
Red kangaroos are affectionate mothers
She grooms him every day
always keeping her eyes peeled for danger
She knows he's still small enough to lure unwanted attention
There is reason for her caution
The wedgetailed eagle is nearby
When the bird takes off
mothers fold their joeys back into the pouch
With no prospects in the offing
the eagle returns to her nest to see to her own family business
Her chicks are voracious eaters
They love kangaroo meat
But there's competition in the predatory arena
Australia's wild dog, the dingo
also lurks wherever kangaroos gather
So the eagle must set out again
Wedgetails are partial to young joeys
but won't take on protective mothers to get at them
Soon, he'll be as much of a handful as the other joey
who's already out and about
Once again, Joey's mother senses trouble
And her instincts are usually on the mark
Not far off, the eagle has claimed a young kangaroo
and Joey's mother decides to depart
But wedgetailed eagles have families to feed as well
And these two are anxious to eat
She brings them torn off slivers of meat
gently feeding the chicks from a fearsome beak
Nothing much has changed for the rest of the kangaroos
The young males play
the adults relax
Many settle in for a regular daytime snooze
But Joey's got other ideas
He's up now, so his mother must rouse herself to stand guard
Joey looks big enough to be weaned
He has taken to sticking just his head in the pouch sometimes nursing
sometimes only for comfort
The kangaroos are having a quiet afternoon
For the most part, they just sit around or dust-bathe
For the first time
Joey's mother allows him to wander more than an arm's length away
He's always been a fine scratcher
But he's still an uncertain walker at best
angaroos are built for hopping
They look ungainly moving at slower speeds
Young males play-fight for hours each day
This comical pair probably won't hurt each other
but someday, they may fight in earnest for mating rights
Though he's still nursing
Joey wants to try a mouthful of grass
and gets a thorn in the nose for his trouble
It will be a while before he's tuned to this landscape
but he just learned a valuable lesson
He turns to a more familiar source
But Mother isn't her usual welcoming self
She controls her pouch with powerful muscles
and easily ejects her joey
His weaning has begun
From now on, he'll do more of his feeding from outside
In time, Joey will join these sparring matches
Using their tails for balance
the young kangaroos stand upright
wrestling with forearms and pawing at heads and shoulders
They throw their heads back
protecting themselves from sharp claws
A passing eagle, headed back to a recent kill
stops to survey the scene
Her arrival sends Joey diving head first into the pouch
All the kangaroos are wary
But with hungry chicks to feed
the eagle returns to the dead joey
Apart from human hunters
only the eagle and the dingo now regularly pursue red kangaroos
But huge lizards and even marsupial lions may have fed on Joey's ancestors
Giants once roamed this landscape
Their legacy today is a ferocious
flesh-eating marsupial now found
only on Australia's companion island Tasmania
Not known for their table manners
Tasmanian devils snarl and snap even
when there's plenty to go around
The devils are gorging on a mid-sized kangaroo
usually called a wallaby
And the ruckus alerts another kangaroo cousin
that it's time to take cover
This little hopper is a Tasmanian bettong
Her youngster, too large for the pouch
keeps to the nest when she forages
The smaller devil, a female
also has young who have grown too large for her pouch
From the safety of a hollow log
the young ones wait impatiently for their dinner
As quiet settles on the forest
the sprightly bettongs get back to business
Hopping probably originated in kangaroos like these:
Perhaps the motion confused predators
giving the small 'roos a chance at escape
But it was on the open plains
that the kangaroos' singular way of getting
about probably came into its own
Scientists know that hopping can be far more efficient than running
When a kangaroo hits the ground
its hind legs store energy like compacted springs
The energy helps propel the kangaroo upwards for the next hop
The motion also accordions the 'roo's lungs in and out
so the animal wastes no effort while breathing
Scientists haven't solved the mystery of how kangaroos went
from four legs to two
But the Aborigines have long had their own explanations
One ancient myth holds
that while making its four legged way through the brush
a kangaroo heard sounds it had never heard before
It followed the enchanting music
until it came upon human beings singing
and dancing on two feet
The kangaroo stood up on feet of its own
then began to copy their movements
It burst from hiding in a frenzy
intending to join the ceremony around the fire
But the people were angry
They fell upon the proud animal determined that it should die
Then a spirit voice boomed from the heavens
telling them to release the kangaroo and cherish him as a brother
While hopping earned kangaroos a special place
in the Aboriginal Dreamtime
it also propelled them into some of the most unlikely places
This beautiful little kangaroo
is a yellow footed rock wallaby
They show off their mountaineering skills
wherever cliffs jut out of Australia's vast desert land
Living in large colonies
the rock wallabies shelter in caves along the rocks
Shady crevices harbor vegetation year-round
But water can be a problem
To get it, they sometimes descend to where rain collects below
Wedgetailed eagles prey on rock wallabies, too
Youngsters waiting on the cliffs sometimes wander into the open
Only adults descend to drink
Young ones too big for the pouch must stay behind
In just a few minutes
she'll drink a tenth of her weight in water
Then she'll hurry back to her joey
Thirsty joeys drink straight from mother's mouth
Like their big red cousins on the plains
young rock wallabies spend hours in mock battle
And while the children play
some adults engage in courtship
But this male's gentle ardor is getting him nowhere
The children, oblivious, play on
He's nothing if not persistent
But she'll have none of it
Other adults bask lazily in the early morning light
Long eyelashes my help screen out the harsh sun
and discourage flies
Before retreating into the cool caves for the day
the wallabies sunbathe
As the sun warms the cliff face
they head for their midday hideouts
The eagle will have no more chances at them today
It wheels and heads for the plains
and its larger kangaroo fare
Joey's growing like a desert weed
and sporting a much redder coat
Each day he spends less time in the pouch
and no longer clings to his mother when out
This is a dangerous time for Joey
He's too big for his mother to carry if she has to run away
and reason to run is never far off
A hungry dingo is slinking about
while Joey's busy grooming himself
His mother calls Joey to her side
Neither one sees the dingo approaching through the brush
For a moment, a young male freezes
His panic proves contagious
Mother and Joey make their getaway too
The dingo's no slouch when it comes to speed
but the 'roos reach 35 miles per hour
Dingoes have better luck hunting in packs
when they're after large kangaroos
But when smaller game are plentiful
they tend to hunt alone
Safely away from the wild dog
Mother lets Joey back into the comforting pouch
Nearby, a big male paces nervously
He's caught the scent of yet another danger
Drifting smoke
Again, the action of one kangaroo triggers the flight of others
This time they've been frightened by fire
and they're racing to get away
But this is no wildfire lt' a weapon
The Aborigines have been using fire to hunt for thousands of years
They are after a favorite delicacy a lizard called a goanna
Some seek refuge from the flame in trees
others go underground
Here, women use sticks to locate escape tunnels
then unearth the lizards using tin cans
A goanna for the barbie is reason for celebration
but these old ways are disappearing
Today fewer Aborigines use fire to hunt and
ironically, some kangaroos are paying the price
The little rufus-hair wallaby depends on spinifex bushes
that the Aborigines burn
It needs their fires to thrive
They use the old bushes for shelter
But fire promotes the new growth that feeds the wallaby
and these little spinifex mice
The wallaby eats the bushes' young leaves
The mice take the seeds
The wallaby burrows into older bushes
which bristle with spiky defenses
But these thorny refuges have been no match
against the upheaval of the last two centuries
Since Europeans arrived in 1788
almost half of Australia's kangaroo species have been declared extinct
endangered, or vulnerable
The whites brought foreign animals by the boatload
They converted vast areas of land to grazing
changing the landscape forever
Unlike the soft-footed kangaroos
hard-hooved sheep and cattle wore away the desert scrub and soil
Livestock paths quickly eroded into ravines
pastures became wastelands
Rabbits, introduced for the benefit of hunters
bred out of control
Miles of fences went up in a vain attempt to contain them
Today, those same fences bewilder migrating herds of
native animals like the emu
Inevitably, rats and mice accompanied the Europeans
as did the domestic cat
...which quickly developed a taste for small kangaroos
So did the fox
They continue to take a dreadful toll on the kangaroo
Now many of the smaller species face uncertain futures
But for some kangaroos, the Europeans provided a bonanza
They dug water bores throughout the desert to supply their livestock
and the red kangaroo has benefitted ever since
One 19th century naturalist spotted so few red kangaroos
that he predicted their ultimate demise
But thanks to the permanent water supply
the population boomed
When water is readily available to red kangaroos
they breed like there's no tomorrow
Joey's only been out of the pouch for two days
but his mother is about to give birth again
A pink embryo, the size of a bean
makes its first appearance
Blind and deaf
it must somehow find its way to the mother's pouch or perish
lts hind limbs, destined for enormity someday
are now just useless buds
It must use its tiny forelimbs to drag itself
through the tangled forest of its mother's fur
Instinct keeps it moving up against the pull of gravity
The epic, six-inch journey takes over three minutes
Once inside the pouch it searches out the nipples
Joey's brother was actually conceived many months ago
but remained in suspended animation
while Mother tended to Joey himself
It is a miraculous process the key to reproductive success
While a mother raises one joey out of the pouch
a tiny one grows inside it
and a third waits on hold in the womb
It's time for her to put yet another embryo in reserve
Just two days after the birth
the big reds start sniffing around again a sign she's already in heat
Mother won't let Joey into the pouch anymore
but she still nurses him occasionally
Amazingly, she now produces two kinds of milk one for the embryo
another for Joey
Her condition sets some of the males to jousting
A big newcomer
collared by scientists to track his wanderings
has thrown his hat into the ring
He's over six feet tall and clearly dominates the contest
By kangaroo Queensberry rules
only the subdominant male kicks
giving away his inferior position
Mother, now eating for three and ready to make it four
grazes continuously
But fortunately, Joey increasingly fends for himself
The very biggest of the males now finds Mother irresistible
He's huge
She appears to ignore his persistent attentions
Then, her scent attracts another suitor
But the dominant old male scoffs at competition
From a distance
Joey watches the proceedings
The result of this mating will grow for a few days
then become dormant until Joey's brother is out of the pouch
With such an ingenious breeding scheme
it is no wonder red kangaroo numbers exploded
once humans supplied a permanent source of water
Every year, survey teams take to the air to count the reds
Their reports will determine the number of 'roos
that can be hunted legally the following year
Strewn over the vast harsh desert at the center of Australia
red kangaroos now number close to ten million
Out in the open
Mother and Joey quickly recover from their fright at the plane
Others inevitably encounter the thousands of miles of fencing
that crisscross the desert... and sometimes
these encounters are deadly
Australia's kangaroo population is booming
and several million are culled each year
Mother and Joey freeze caught in the hunter's lights
But they're not the quarry he seeks
The hunter has his sights on huge red males
Culling kangaroos strikes many people as cruel
Others argue it's no crueler than slaughtering livestock
Given Australia's delicate desert ecology
the kangaroo harvest may prove more sustainable
than raising sheep and cattle
Aside from hunters' bullets
kangaroos face another nighttime hazard
thousands are killed each year on desert highways
Mother and Joey are safe the next day
but picking up dangerous habits
Strips of green growth parallel Australia's roads places
where the runoff from occasional rain nurtures fresh grasses
Feeding along roadsides at night
kangaroos often blunder into oncoming vehicles
The sheer numbers of red kangaroos
makes this an all too common sight
But in a very different part of Australia
there are still rare kangaroos that few people have ever seen
Here, in one of the remaining slices of primeval forest
the kangaroo story comes full circle
This is Mount Finnigan a place of reverence for Aborigines
and one of the last strongholds
of one of Joey's most extraordinary relatives
It takes patience to catch a glimpse of this elusive creature
and a healthy measure of luck
An experienced woodsman recognizes telltale claw
marks leading up into the canopy
There it is... Bennett's tree kangaroo
Millions of years after kangaroos came down out of trees
the Bennetts went back up
In evolutionary terms, they haven't been up there very long
And those big hind feet seem ill suited to life among the leaves
While a mother forages
her joey clings uncertainly to a nearby vine
They look awkward and out of place up here
but tree kangaroos are very acrobatic
They can make spectacular leaps of 20 feet from limb to limb
and can safely catapult 60 feet down if startled
Remarkably, another kind of kangaroo has also
taken to life in the treetops
This is Lumholtz's tree kangaroo
and like their ground-based cousins
Mother and joey are quite affectionate
As they walk, they move their hind legs independently
something most 'roos don't do
But nothing compares to big reds in the desert
where the hop still reigns supreme
Joey's quickly approaching his mother's size
Her younger joey has recently started taking his first peak at the world
and will soon outstrip his brother in the quest for Mother's attention
Joey must now look after himself
and begin mixing it up with other young males
Right on schedule
he has taken an interest in jousting
Tentatively, he approaches the fray
And while his mother looks on
he gets into his first dust-up
Joey is beginning to look the part
He has all the makings of a big red
Turning adversity into advantage
the red kangaroo has flourished even as its kangaroo cousins
have struggled or disappeared altogether
This pouch-raised powerhouse is a marvel of natural engineering
It inherited the harsh expanse of Australia's desert
and made the landscape its own