Tree Kangaroo

Tree-kangaroos are macropods adapted for life in trees.

Unlike their close cousins, their arms and legs are approximately the same length. Tree kangaroos also have much stronger fore-limbs to help in climbing the trees they inhabit.

Distribution

They are mostly found in the rainforests of New Guinea, the far north east of Queensland and nearby islands, usually in mountainous areas.

Although mainly found in mountainous areas, several species also occur in lowlands, such as the aptly named Lowlands Tree-kangaroo.

Diet

Living in the trees, the tree kangaroo eats mostly leaves and fruit, though they’ll eat out of the trees as well as collecting fruit that has fallen to the ground.

The animals will also eat other items such as grains, flowers, sap, eggs, young birds, and even bark.

Their teeth are adpated for eating and tearing leaves. However they are not true ruminants (like cows that have 4 stomachs) but they do have dense baterial populations in their esophagus, stomachs and the upper part of the small intestine so that they can get the most energy and nutrients from the fibrous mass of vegetation that they consume.

Evolution

The interesting thing about tree kanagroos is that they stuck to their roots.

Millions of years ago the early Marcopods (kangaroos) came down from the trees and started to evolve their unique way of living and moving. However, at some point on this evolutionary timescale, the tree kangaroos decided to return to the trees... and no one has yet found out why.