Inside a Kangaroo Pouch - Smarter Every Day 139

Hey, it's me Destin, welcome back to Smarter Every Day. Simple question here. Do you know, like really know, what a kangaroo pouch looks like? Several years ago, I was invited to Australia to help promote National Science Week with my friend Chris, who has a website called Science Alert. As far as I knew, kangaroo pouches look like, well, you know, your jean pocket, like a little flap. We've all seen cartoons of kangaroos, but is that what a kangaroo pouch looks like?

My wife and I flew over to visit Chris, and right off the bat, this happened. - "There's a kangaroo! Look, there he goes.” - "He's gonna come our way." (Destin) "Oh man.” - "He's gonna cut right across in front of us." - "Oh my goodness! Seriously!” - "You will see some roadkill, and now you'll know why.” (Destin) "Not really smart, are they? Man, that is bizarre.” - "On cue as demanded." [laughs] "I called that in. I said I want a roo at the Chinese Embassy.” (Destin) "Oh yeah that is the Chinese...” - "4:23... Be there." [laughter] - "And yeah, that's pretty cool, but it didn't feel like a wild kangaroo, so I asked Chris to take us to a local area called the Tidbinbilla Nature Preserve where hundreds of kangaroos are known to hang out."

"You rolling?" - "Rolling." - "OK, we spent all that time out in the wilderness and then we come back to grill some sausage, and they're coming up to us, so obviously we have to see if we can find the pouch." - "I'm not sticking my hand in there." - "Just try it." - "Did you see his nails? Like this..." - "But it's... They're on the ground. Look, go for it. Look, you have a degree in biology, and I don't." - "I think he does have a small one. I think." - "There you go." - "You want me to give him some more nibbles? You're good, you're good." [laughs]

"Today we learn kangaroos do not have pouches. Alright, I'm gonna sit this there... Alright, let me... I'm just gonna reach under here. No, no, no, it's cool, it's cool dude. No need to poop, no need to poop. Here, I'm just feeling for your pouch, that's all we're doing here. I'm very gentle. I'm trying to get the pouch. I haven't..." - "That ain't the pouch buddy." - "[laughs] I feel ribs. What've we got. Bro, you're awesome. I can't find a pouch." [laughs] "OK, this is a... Do males have pouches?" - "I don't know." - "[laughs] This is my logic. Females have nipples and feed babies. Female kangaroos have pouches and hold joeys. I have nipples, and I don't feed babies. Therefore, it's possible that male kangaroos have pouches but don't hold joeys."

Even though I was touching this kangaroo directly, the geometry felt a little weird. So the next day we're driving to Kangaroo Valley; I have a genius plan. "OK, we're randomly walking up to a house, and we're gonna ask about kangaroos. And what was your name again?" - "Angela." - "Angela, so Alan has told us something that's amazing about the kangaroo. What is it, Alan?" - "Kangaroo is an amazing animal, it's unusual, it's unique in the world, it's a furred animal, four-legged, and it's the only animal in the world that has its testicles in front of its penis."

"I guess that explains why the geometry felt weird. If you know that, you have to know this. We were trying to... I had a kangaroo, and he let me pat his belly. I couldn't find a pouch. Do male kangaroos have pouches?" - "No, they don't have a pouch." - "They don't. Only the females?" - "Only the females." - "So... How... Are they born with the pouch?" - "They're born with a pouch, yes." - "Really." - "Yeah, they are." "Well... They develop a pouch. They're born, they're minute, they're smaller than your little finger, and they're born through the vagina. And then they climb up the front of the kangaroo on the fur. She licks a track, they climb up and they go into the pouch."

"Really." - "Sometimes she'll have two or three. Then he attaches to the nipple." - "To the teat." - "Yeah, he grows on it. And he can't be pulled off without tearing his mouth out for about... Oh, I think it's around about two months. And then he starts to develop fur, and he becomes detached from the nipple. And when he's about four months old, he starts to pop his head out, look around, and so on."

"We went to a place called Josephine's Gallery & Kangaroo Orphanage, which I thought was really cool because Josephine and her husband Terry raise these kangaroos that come to them from all over an area the size of Texas. They have to basically recreate what it's like in a womb in order to nurse these small kangaroos up to maturity. I learned from Terry, the husband, that the female kangaroo has four nipples on the inside of the pouch, and even he wasn't sure if male kangaroos had nipples or not." - "Little wobbly... There you go." - "So are all of yours females?" - "Got all females at the moment, yep." (Destin) "Where's the pouch you said?" - "It's there." - "Really." - "Tuft of fur there." - "Wow." - "Yes, it's quite compact."

[background conversation] - "What you doing babe? Oh, you ready to go back to bed, are you? You looking for your pouch already? Oh yes, yes, yes, I know, I know. Hohoho. In you go." [laughter] "Every time we feed her, she has that little bit of time down, and that'll just slowly increase as she gets a bit older. So she's only been hopping around just over a week, she's been learning to stand, so she's doing pretty good, aren't ya babe. Eh?"

"So that's cute and all, but we still haven't looked inside a kangaroo pouch. So we went back to Sydney, we called up the big guns, Taronga Zoo. Across the bay in Sydney, it's awesome. We took a ferry, all kinds of Australian wildlife, you take a cable car up to the top, overlooking the zoo, and then we schedule one-on-one time with Sam, the zookeeper."

"Is that the proper term?" - "That's right." - "Alright, and this is Penny, right?" - "Yeah." - "And so you said... Stay there, Penny. We're gonna go... Where's your pouch? Oop, there it is. There it is. Oop! Little present there. Can you hold the pouch open with one hand?" - "Sure. Let me just get some more sultanas." - "Sultanas are raisins, right?" - "Yeah." - "Alright. That's the pouch. Wow. Let me see if I can. So it's... That's why I couldn't find it; it was very small. So you can... Man, that's amazing. So back in there, at the very back of it, I can see. I probably can't see it on the uh... Yeah, look at that. There's white and black spots in the back. Thank you, girl, I'm sorry." - "Get it?" - "Yeah."

"So it's really small and it stretches out. I thought it was... As an American, I always had the misconception that it was like a pocket right here on the belly because that's the way it is on cartoons. Thank you for showing me that." - "No problem." - "Bam! We just learned something. I always thought kangaroo pouches were kind of like pockets on your pants. They're not. They're way cooler than that."

Before I show you footage of my family feeding giraffes at Taronga Zoo, I want to mention the sponsor. They made my quest for marsupial orifices possible. Audible.com sponsors Smarter Every Day. Just so you know I'm not lying here; I listen to all kinds of audio books. That's my library. You can go to audible.com/smarter and get any book you want for free. audible.com/smarter, that easy. You can get Smarter Every Day by listening to audiobooks. I do it on my way to work. Pretty cool way to get smarter.

Anyway, I listened to Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card as we flew over the Pacific Ocean to Australia. Really good book, but you can get whatever you want. audible.com/smarter. One more thing. Um, thanks. Thanks for watching a video about me running around Australia trying to find a specific marsupial orifice. That's really weird, and you're watching this whole video, so thank you. Please consider subscribing if that added value to your life. If not, have fun watching my family feed giraffes carrots.

I'm Destin, you're getting Smarter Every Day. Have a good one. What's the term? - "Prehensile." - "Prehensile, meaning they can direct it." - "Prehensile... wow." - "So it's very hand-like, we say." - "Oh, can we... I want to hold and see if they can pull against me. Is that possible, or is that a bad thing to do?"

"Of course she gave me a small carrot to do it." [laugh] - "...saliva you're getting there." - "Oh my goodness." - "I tried it." - "Yeah."