National Geographic: Australias Animal Mysteries Page #2

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and general states of health.

Color-coded tags make the animal

easily identifiable

even when high in the trees.

This one was tagged originally

when still in his mother's pouch,

and much about him is already known.

Tooth wear is about the most

reliable indication of age.

This male is roughly three years old.

Now, we'll do his chest gland.

On their chests all male koalas

have a scent gland

which exudes a distinctive odor.

By rubbing the gland on tree trunks

and branches,

they announce their presence

to others in the area.

Okay, we'll go out of the sun, over here.

That sound like a good idea.

Okay, fellow.

There we are. Good as new.

He's not going to go to that tree again.

Go on.

...nasty, that one...

Momentarily disoriented after his

release from the bag,

the young koala seems unsure

of what to do next.

But within seconds he heads back

quickly to the same tree

from which he'd been captured.

Guess he proved me wrong.

He took that rather well.

Sensing only that he is safely back

where he wants to be,

the koala cannot possibly realize

how today's encounter with strangers

may well help determine the

future of his kind.

Perhaps the very symbol of Australia,

the kangaroo remains as fascinating today

as when the first live specimen

reached England in the 1700s.

A handbill announcing the

event proclaimed that

"to enumerate its extraordinary

Qualities would far exceed

the common Limits of a Public Notice".

Now, almost two centuries later,

a rare piece of film documents

one of the kangaroo's most

extraordinary qualities of all.

After a gestation period

of about a month,

this red kangaroo prepares to give birth.

Though scientists now understand

the biology of marsupial birth,

it is no less remarkable to behold.

All marsupials are born in an

undeveloped state,

their growth to be completed

inside the pouch.

Defenseless and blind,

the tiny newborn,

completely unaided by the mother,

must navigate through her

thick fur toward the pouch.

If it loses its way, it will die.

Once inside the pouch,

guided only by its sense of smell,

the newborn finds one of the

mother's nipples.

Here it will remain attached,

suckling for more than six months.

Now the joey will be strong enough to

leave the pouch intermittently.

But even when it is old enough to graze,

it will return to the pouch to nurse

for several months more.

Amazing in their adaptability, some

kangaroos are as at home in the trees

as others are bounding

across rocky slopes.

There are about 50 species

of kangaroos in Australia

ranging from up to seven feet in

height to the size of a common rat.

But one trait they all

share is that they hop.

Though it may weigh

as much as 200 pounds,

the kangaroo is a picture of grace

when it takes to flight.

It can reach speed up to

and cover as much as 25 feet in one leap.

Recently scientists were amazed to

discover that, at certain speeds,

the kangaroo actually uses less

oxygen the faster it goes.

It was found that,

like the spring in a pogo stick,

the kangaroo's leg muscles and

tendons store energy,

which is then released without effort

when the animal next pushes off.

Though the kangaroo is no doubt the

most famous marsupial,

Australia boasts as many as

The ferocious-looking Tasmanian Devil

is one of the few

that eat meat exclusively.

Once can only imagine the astonishment

of early explorers

when they saw a pouched

animal take to the air.

These possums do not

actually fly like birds,

but their kite-like membrane enables

them to glide

for distances of 40 yards or more.

Only in small patches of Western

Australia will one find the numbat,

a small, gentle marsupial now extinct

in other parts of the country.

With sharp claws the numbat roots

out termites, its primary food.

Its long, sinuous, sticky tongue can

capture thousands of the insects a day.

With its distinctive bands of white

and its bottlebrush tail,

the numbat is considered by many

to be Australia's most

beautifully marked marsupial.

The majestic Blue Mountains lie

Here, beneath the vivid blue haze

which gave the mountains their name,

areas of pristine wilderness abound.

Nestled in the hills,

an historic estate called Yengo

spreads across 25 acres.

For the past 12 years it

has been a private reserve dedicated

to breeding endangered animals.

He's really heavy, I'll tell you that.

The owner is businessman Peter Pigott,

one of Australia's

foremost conservationists.

With his wife and son,

he is transferring a wombat injured

in a fight to a safer enclosure.

Come here.

Come on.

Nice leg to bite.

Pigott's breeding success with

wombats is considered phenomenal

better than any zoo

and is attributed to his

concern for creating

the most natural setting possible

in a captive environment.

I guess that my first opportune at

doing something very constructive

in the field of conservation was the

rediscovery of a wallaby

that we thought was extinct.

The parma wallaby, a mall kangaroo

only about 14 inches tall,

was abundant until early settlers

destroyed its habitat

and introduced new predators.

Though thought to be extinct,

a small colony was discovered in 1965.

Starting with only 18 animals,

Pigott has increased the population

here to more than 200 in ten years.

A lot of people say to me,

now why should we conserve wildlife?

Why should we be really concerned?

I mean, aren't people more

important than wildlife?

We are all part of the 600 million

years of evolution

and I suppose that one of

the great things

that separates mankind from the animals

is our sense and

appreciation of the esthetics

our love of literature,

our love of art and poetry,

and of nature itself.

I often think that if we lose this we

disregard the world that's around us

and the animals that are here.

We might wake up one morning and

find ourselves on the endangered list.

Her skies ablaze with color,

Australia has been called

"the foremost land of birds".

More than 300 species are

unique to her shores.

One of Australia's most distinctive birds,

the mallee fowl is a prodigious engineer.

To incubate their eggs in a harsh

environment that is generally dry

and subject to sharp temperature changes,

they build mounds up to 15 feet

across and several feet high.

Working together,

male and female have laid down

a bed of wet leaves and twigs.

To seal in the moisture and heat

of the fermenting compost,

they cover the mound with sand.

The egg chamber itself lies

at the heart of the mound.

Beginning in the spring and

continuing for three to four months,

the female will come about once a

week to lay a single egg.

The mallee regions are marked by

sharp temperature fluctuations

between day and night and

as the seasons change,

but the egg chamber must be kept at

an almost constant 92 degrees.

Once the female has laid her egg,

she will heave the tending

of the mound to her mate.

To determine the temperature,

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