Maddie+B

media type="custom" key="21172200"Explorer - Maddie B

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Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia  Phylum: Chordata  Class: Mammalia  Infraclass: Marsupialia  Order: Diprotodontia  Family: Macropodidea  Subfamily: Macropodinea  Genus: Dendrolagus  Species: D. matschiei

Appearance:
With a head and body length of 20 to 32 inches (810 mm), Matchie's Tree Kangaroos are much smaller than the well known Australian Red Kangaroo. The Matschie’s tree-kangaroo is golden on its abdominal side, lower parts of its limbs, ear edges, belly, and tail, and the rest of its body is a chestnut brown color, except for usually having a dark stripe down its back. They have curved claws on their forelimbs and soft pads on their hind limbs that aid in their climbing ability, and they have some independent movement of their digits as well as good physical skill due to their forelimbs being able to bend a great deal. Out of all of the Dendrolagus species, the Matschie’s tree-kangaroo is the best vertical climber and has more strength in its muscles than any others. Their tails help to offset their balance while moving swiftly through the trees since their tails are about the same length as their head and body size. Males and females do not have many sexual differences, with males and females being of about equal sizes. The upper and lower jaws of the Matschie’s tree-kangaroos are different too in addition to them being different in body size. The upper jaw has three incisors, one canine, one premolar, and four molars, while the lower jaw has one very sharp incisor, no canines and low crowned molars.

Female:
Females, like other marsupials, have a pouch to store their young for the first year or so of life. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">An adult female weighs between 15 and 20 lb (7-9 kg).

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Male:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Male Matchie's Tree Kangaroos are roughly the same size at the females making it hard to tell the difference between the two. An adult male weighs between 20 and 25 lb (9-11 kg). The weight difference between the male and the female is only about 5 to 10 lb. Infact the only main difference is the females pouch.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Young:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The joey remains in the pouch for about ten months. The mother will clean her pouch and groom the infant often during this phase. After the infant initially leaves the pouch at eight months, it will continue to return to the pouch to nurse. This "in and out" phase lasts for one or two months. During the final phase, the young still nurses but never climbs completely into the pouch. Young tree kangaroos are weaned when they are approximately 13 months old. They stay with their mothers until they are about 18 months old, when they disperse and establish a home range.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Diet:


<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Matschie’s tree-kangaroos are mainly folivorous, eating anything from leaves, sap, insects, flowers, and nuts. It was also found that they have eaten chickens in captivity as well as feeding on a variety of plants, carrots, lettuce, bananas, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and yams. Since they eat high fiber foods, they only eat maybe about 1 to 2 hours throughout the day and the other time of the day they are resting and digesting their food. Their digestion is similar to that of the ruminants; they have a large, “tubiform forestomach”, where most of the fermentation and breakdown of tough material takes place at; in the hind stomach, there is a mucosa lining with many glands that help absorption begin here.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Reproduction:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In captivity, the tree-kangaroos can get pregnant at any time of the year and are known to breed well. The female oestrus cycle is between 54.2 and 56.8 days and tree kangaroos are able to produce young at 2 to 2.5 years of age. Mating occurs when a female advances on a male while on the ground; they touch each other’s noses and click their tongues. The female is initially resistant to the male's advances. She will hiss and swat at the male but will permit him to mount her within ten minutes. Intercourse can last up to an hour afterwards. The gestation period lasts approximately 44 days, which is known to be the longest for any of the marsupials. A single observed captive birth occurred above ground, in the branches. Joeys first stick their head out of the pouch at roughly 22 weeks. They will first leave the pouch and feed on their own at 28 weeks. Joeys permanently vacate the pouch at approximately 41 weeks. The Matschie’s tree-kangaroos have no embryonic diapauses or delayed implantations and are able to get pregnant as soon as the joey leaves the pouch. (Loss of pouch young results in a return to estrus within 5 days.)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Tree-kangaroos are slow and clumsy on the ground. They move at about walking pace and hop awkwardly, leaning their body far forward to balance the heavy tail. But in trees they are bold and agile. They climb by wrapping the forelimbs around the back of a tree and hopping with the powerful hind legs, allowing the forelimbs to slide. They are expert leapers; 9 metres (30 ft) downward jumps from one tree to another have been recorded, and they have the extraordinary ability to jump to the ground from 18 metres (60 ft) or more without being hurt.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">There are 14 different species of tree kangaroo, though there is some uncertainty due to taxonomy. Depending on species, there are some significant differences in the colour of the fur and the size <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, with a head and body length of 41 to 77 centimetres (16 to 30 in), a tail length of 40 to 87 centimetres (16 to 34 in), and a weight of up to 14.5 kilograms (32 lb). Females are smaller than males.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Little is known about the Matschie's Tree Kangaroos social behaviour. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Researchers believe that Matschie's tree kangaroos are fairly solitary animals. Females and males have non-overlapping home ranges, but a male's range will overlap several females' range. Researchers also believe that Matschie's tree kangaroos are polygamous and that males interact with several females. Males, however, appear not to establish harems, and females remain independent. The only strong social bond these animals form is between mother and offspring.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Habitat:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Matschie's tree kangaroos are found at an altitude of 3000-5000 ft (900-1500 m) above sea level. They are located in the mountainous tropical deciduous and tropical rainforests of New Guinea. They are found exclusively on Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea, as well as on the nearby island of Umboi. Matschie's tree kangaroos are arboreal, meaning they live in trees, and spend little time on the ground. They are solitary creatures and come together only to mate. The males require a large territory that will overlap several of the females' smaller territories. They feed during the day.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Fact File:

 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Instead of sweating, Matschie's Tree Kangaroos lick their forearms and allow the evaporation to keep their body cool
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Matschie's Tree Kangaroos are able to leap 60 feet (18 metres) to the ground from the trees without getting hurt
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Matschie's Tree Kangaroos have the longest gestation period of any other marsupial, which seems strange because it is only 44 days
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">They sleep for 60% of their lives, curled up in the nearest tree.



<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Conclusion:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">All in all, Matschie's Tree Kangaroos are very interesting little animals that seem to love nothing more than climing up the nearest tree and taking a nap. But by far the most interesting thing about them is their abilty to climb and jump making them the perfect combination of a kangaroo and a monkey.

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