Drawing Wild Animals by Oana Befort

Author:Oana Befort
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rockport Publishers
Published: 2018-05-21T04:00:00+00:00

DRAWING

MARSUPIALS

young in pouches

ENDEMIC TO the Australian continent and the Americas, marsupials are named for the distinctive pouch, or marsupium, in which most carry their newborn young. Most marsupials occur in and around Australia, including well-known species such as koalas, kangaroos, and wombats. Nearly all marsupials are nocturnal, and they are surprisingly diverse in size, habitat preference, and food source, from the scavenging devil of Tasmania, capable of eating an entire carcass including the bones, to the carnivorous Ningbing, an adorable but ferocious invertebrate predator restricted to one small region in northwest Australia.

Marsupials have evolved excellent hearing and sense of smell, important features for animals that make their way primarily at night. Newborn marsupials, also called joeys, are born extremely small and undeveloped, and are not capable of regulating their own body temperature. After birth, they must crawl their way to the safe environment of the mother’s pouch, where they will latch onto a nipple and continue developing for many months more. Most marsupials are solitary, coming together only during the breeding season, and most give birth to multiple joeys at a time. They play many important ecological roles, including pollinator, seed disperser, pest controller, and burrow digger.

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