Wednesday, December 26, 2018

A random fact about pregnant kangaroos

I'm working on my scrapbook today and am looking at all my pics of kangaroos.. . . not a bad way to spend an afternoon!


 I don't think I ever shared this. . . so here is a really weird fact about kangaroos that you may or may not want to know :)

Kangaroos can 'pause' their pregnancy! The average gestation for different varieties of kangaroos averages anywhere from 28-37 days. Then the teeny tiny (and kind of gross looking) baby kangaroo, called a joey, is born and climbs into Mom's pouch, where it nurses and continues to develop. However, if Mom gets pregnant again while she's still nursing a joey in her pouch, her body can 'pause' the pregnancy! That's right; the embryo grows to around 100 cells and then stops growing! Once older sibling is fully developed and done nursing, and Mom's pouch is free, the embryo starts growing again and the joey is born as normal.

The official term for this is 'embryonic diapause' - google if you want more info :)


Amazing!

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