Their 3-Week Mating Frenzy Routinely Kills This Marsupial

Marsupials are fascinating creatures with their own built-in pouches. These are animals like kangaroos, possums, and koalas. Although they are mammals, their pregnancies are super short, lasting only a few days or weeks. They give birth to tiny, underdeveloped young that look more like embryos than babies. Instead of developing inside their mother’s womb, marsupial young are born early and must climb into their mother’s pouch, where they latch on and grow for several more weeks or even months. But honestly, that’s just the tip of the weird iceberg when it comes to these wacky and wonderful creatures. Here are some truly bizarre marsupial facts you probably never knew!

1. Kangaroos Can’t Jump Backward

Kangaroos (Macropodidae) are unique marsupials due to their gigantic feet and long, powerful tails. These unusual features help kangaroos balance and jump amazingly fast and far. An adult kangaroo can leap 30 feet in just one jump! They’re incredibly agile, moving forward or sideways — but never backward. Those massive tails and feet don’t allow it. In fact, a bizarre marsupial fact is that kangaroos can’t walk at all! Fortunately, they can hop at around 15.5 mph and if they really need to, they can burst up to 43 mph.

2. Wombats Poop Cubes

Skilled trackers can tell you what animals have been in an area by looking at “scat,” or droppings. However, you don’t need an expert to identify a wombat’s (Vombatidae) presence. These bizarre marsupials poop six-sided cubes. Yes, actual squared-shaped cubes. A wombat’s intestinal tract is built differently than other animals, resulting in the animal’s strangely shaped droppings.

3. The Smallest Marsupial Measures Less Than 3 Inches

The long-tailed planigale (Planigale ingrami) looks a bit like a mouse with an unusually flattened head, but it’s actually a marsupial — the smallest marsupial in the world! These tiny animals grow just 2.2 to 2.6 inches long and weigh only .20 ounces at the most! Despite their tiny size, however, long-tailed planigales are fierce little carnivores. Their flat heads allow them to squeeze into tiny cracks and crevices to find food and shelter.

4. Dunnarts Can Breathe Through Their Skin

Julia Creek dunnarts (Sminthopsis douglasi) may be mammals, but when they’re born, they breathe through their skin! They only gestate for 12 days, so they’re born basically helpless, transparent, and without functioning lungs. To survive, they’ve evolved the remarkable ability to breathe through their skin until their lungs are ready to breathe. Even after three weeks when their lungs start to kick in, their skin is still doing half the job.

5. Tasmanian Devils Have Very Scary Sneezes

Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) truly live up to their name. Found only in Tasmania, their “devil” moniker comes from the many bizarre sounds they make. They have a wide range of vocalizations, from growls and screeches to snorts and even sneezes. They’ll often sneeze when trying to scare off other animals, or when they’re getting ready to tussle with another Tasmanian devil. However, much of the time it’s just a bluff to make them look tough.

6. A Mega-Sized Marsupial Once Roamed Australia

The diprotodon lived in Australia during the Pleistocene, as long as 1.77 million years ago. Like a giant pachyderm-sized wombat, these massive marsupials were nearly 6 feet tall at the shoulders, 13 feet long, and may have weighed 7,700 pounds! They had long, narrow heads with incredibly strong chewing muscles, powerful jaws, and constantly growing front teeth. Diprotodons ate various plants like grasses, twigs, shrubs, trees, and leaves.

7. Some Marsupials Have Backward Pouches

Having a pouch is one of the defining characteristics of a marsupial. But a very unexpected marsupial fact is that some of these bizarre creatures have pouches that face backward! Instead of the pouch opening facing forward like a kangaroo’s, it faces the animal’s rear. This may sound more than a little awkward, but there’s actually a really good reason for it. Marsupials with backward-facing pouches are usually big-time diggers, like wombats and Tasmanian devils. Their backward-facing pouches protect their little ones from getting pelted with dirt and debris every time Mom starts digging.

8. Red Kangaroo Joeys Are the Size of a Jellybean

Red kangaroos (Osphranter rufus) are pregnant for up to 34 days, which is pretty short for such a large mammal. When they give birth, it’s just one tiny joey at a time, each only about the size of a jellybean! Baby kangaroo joeys are underdeveloped at birth (basically just little embryos), but they instinctively wiggle their way from the birth canal up to their mother’s pouch where they stay for months as they continue to develop and grow. After about six months, joeys are finally developed enough to start peeking out and exploring for short trips, but they’ll still head back to the pouch for safety and comfort.

9. Koalas Don’t Clean Their Pouches

Like all marsupials, koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) babies grow and develop in their mother’s pouch. Their mothers have special muscles to help keep the pouches nice and snug. However, pouches can still get dirty, which is not ideal for a baby koala. You’d think koala moms would clean their pouches, just like wallabies and some other marsupials do. But it turns out that koalas don’t really need to worry about pouch hygiene. They have an amazing built-in cleaning system with a rather unique mix of antimicrobial proteins inside the pouch itself.

10. Marsupial Moles Don’t Have Pupils or Scrotums

The “itjaritjari” or marsupial mole (Notoryctes) is another truly bizarre marsupial that lives out in the sandy deserts of Central Australia. While they may look like other moles, marsupial moles have some abnormal quirks. For one, their snouts have tough, built-in horny shields that protect them while they’re digging. And since they live entirely underground in complete darkness, their eyes are basically useless without pupils. Another bizarre fact is that marsupial moles are the only marsupials that don’t have a scrotum. Instead, the males’ testicles stay inside their bodies, well protected from all that sand and dirt.

11. Two Tiny Marsupials Have Super Big Bites

Tasmanian devils don’t just sound scary — they also have super strong bites to back up those terrifying sounds! They actually have the strongest bite force relative to body size of any predatory mammal on the planet. These tiny but mighty marsupials can crush bone with those powerful jaws, packing an impressive 553 N force.

But here’s another amazing fact: Tasmanian devils aren’t the only marsupials with a super-powered bite. The spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus), about the size of a house cat, comes in second overall. Its jaw strength compared to its body size is as powerful as a lion!

12. Breeding for the Male Antechinus is a Fatal Affair

These little rodent-like marsupials take breeding very seriously. For two to three weeks, the male antechinus basically stops sleeping and eating, dedicating every last ounce of energy to mating with as many females as possible. It’s so exhausting that, once the breeding season ends, all the males just… die. They literally collapse from too much stress and fatigue! This actually works out well for the females, however, as they don’t have to compete with males for food while they’re pregnant. Some pregnant females even eat the dead males after the breeding season is over.

13. Stripe-Faced Dunnarts Are Only Pregnant for One Week

Weighing just 15 to 25 grams, striped-faced dunnarts live in the dry grasslands and shrublands of Australia. Like other marsupials, they have short pregnancies, but theirs are by far the shortest — just 10 to 11 days long! Despite this short time, however, their babies are born with the same physical structures as other marsupial babies.

14. Some Marsupials Are Green

It’s not every day you see a mammal with green fur — but the green ringtail possum (Pseudochirops archeri) is the real deal! Sadly, these adorable marsupials are considered Near-Threatened by the IUCN. Green ringtail possums are super cute with dense, fluffy olive-grey fur mixed with yellow, black, and silver hairs. The combination of these many colors produces a lovely green hue.

15. Quolls Share Bathrooms

Quolls are super cute cat-sized marsupials. They’re super cute, with soft fur and polka-dot patterns. But don’t be filled by this adorable appearance — quolls are skilled climbers, pro scavengers, and some of Australia’s largest carnivores. A very odd fact about these marsupials, however, is that while they’re solitary animals who live in their own territories, they share a communal bathroom! Quolls all tend to relieve themselves in the same spot, usually on rocky outcrops or along creek lines. So, if you ever come across a bunch of “twisty” shaped droppings, you’ve probably found a communal quoll bathroom.