Pouch (marsupial)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Kangaroo joey inside the pouch
Female eastern grey kangaroo with mature joey in pouch

The pouch is a distinguishing feature of female

teats
. Inside the pouch, the blind offspring attaches itself to one of the mother's teats and remains attached for as long as it takes to grow and develop to a juvenile stage.

Variations

Pouches are different amongst different

opossums
, the pouch opens forward or up.

Female

sphincter muscle
at the opening to prevent the joey from falling out.

In wombats and

marsupial moles, the pouch opens backward or down. Backwards facing pouches would not work well in kangaroos or opossums as their young would readily fall out. Similarly, forward-facing pouches would not work well for wombats and marsupial moles as they both dig extensively underground. Their pouches would fill up with dirt and suffocate the developing young. Kangaroo mothers will lick their pouches clean before the joey crawls inside. Kangaroo pouches are sticky to support their young joey. Koalas are unable to clean out their pouches since they face backwards, so just prior to giving birth to the young koala joey, a self-cleaning system is activated, secreting droplets of an anti-microbial liquid that cleans it out.[5][6]
In a relatively short time, the cleansing droplets clean out all of the crusty material left inside, leaving an almost sterile environment ready to receive the tiny joey.

The

Tasmanian tiger are the only two marsupials where the male also has a pouch (in order to protect their genitalia while swimming).[7]

Some marsupials (e.g.

Pouches have their own microbiota and it changes depending on reproductive stage: anoestrus, pre-oestrus, oestrus/birth, post-birth.[12]

See also

References

  1. .
  2. .
  3. .
  4. ^ Nogueira, José Carlos, et al. "Morphology of the male genital system of Chironectes minimus and comparison to other didelphid marsupials." Journal of mammalogy 85.5 (2004): 834-841.
  5. ^ Anna Salleh (2004-08-05). "Koala pouch may have its own bug buster". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2017-02-28.
  6. S2CID 41112802
    .
  7. .
  8. ^ "Brush-tailed phascogale videos, photos and facts – Phascogale tapoatafa". Arkive.org. Archived from the original on 2014-01-09. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  9. ^ "Dasyurids". Marsupialsociety.org. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  10. PMID 12432001. Retrieved 2017-02-28.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  11. ^ "Short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)". Arkive.org. Archived from the original on 2009-08-13. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  12. PMID 9775355
    .

External links