We’ve already presented to you the Australia collection with the blog post about the Emu. This is our collection where we put the endemic animals to Australia. When you think of an endemic animal, you cannot but think of the Kangaroo. We couldn’t think of a better animal to dedicate to the hot month of August. We explored this famous animal's curious features and dug deep into what we didn’t know about it. With our Australian collection of eco-friendly, entirely handmade, and sustainable animal puzzles, we want to teach our toddler collectors, and you (their parents) about the little known facts behind each animal in the world. Here is another portion of stories you can tell your children.
Kangaroos are the largest marsupials on Earth. Although they are famous as a symbol of Australia, they also live in New Guinea. A group of kangaroos is called a ‘mob’. Each mob has between 10 and 25 kangaroos. The female kangaroo is called a doe, the male kangaroo is called a buck, and the baby kangaroo is called a joey.
Photo credits: Michael Waddle
- Kangaroos are the largest marsupials, which means the females have pouches on their bellies where they rear their young. When a joey is born it is the size of a jelly bean and will stay in its mum’s pouch for at least four months. After that it would hop in and out until about 10 months old. A female kangaroo may become pregnant again while a joey is still in her pouch, in which case the younger joey enters a dormant state until the pouch becomes vacant. Once the older sibling leaves her pouch, the mother's body starts sending hormonal signals to resume the younger joey's development.
Photo credits: Dylan, Manuel Moreno
- Males may fight over females in mating season by kicking, boxing, or even biting, but the group tends to be dominated by its largest male.
- There are four different kangaroo species: red kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo, western grey kangaroo and antilopine kangaroo. The red kangaroo is the largest.
Photo credits:Valeriia Miller, Alois Moubax
- Kangaroos can hop around quickly on two legs or walk around slowly on all fours, but they can’t walk backwards. Kangaroos can jump very high, sometimes three times their own height. Kangaroos use their tails to help them balance while jumping
- Most Kangaroos are left-handed, using that hand for tasks such as grooming and eating about 95% of the time. Their hands also seem to be specialized for different types of work, with kangaroos typically using their left hand for precision and their right hand for strength.
- Kangaroos can swim.
- Kangaroos are herbivores and their diet consists mostly of grass.
photo credits: Valeriia Miller
With these curious facts we hope we gave you some new ideas about what stories you can tell your children while playing with them. Our focus has always been on creating playful family moments. But we also aim to go beyond playfulness and add an educational component to our toys. We believe the best and the most natural way to learn is while playing.
sources: treehugger, nationalgeographic, brisbanekids, wwf
