14 DAY TRIAL // Every once in a while, researchers like to shock us into giving the world around us a second, more thorough look. One can only assume this is precisely what they were after this past July 1, when they casually announced to the world that kangaroos are basically five-legged creatures.
Before anyone starts thinking that kangaroos are magical beings that sport an invisible limb that only reveals itself to a few chosen ones, it need be said that this fifth leg that specialists describe in the journal Biology Letters is actually the animals' tail.
In their paper, the researchers behind this fairly surprising claim explain that a kangaroo's tail doubles as a leg whenever the animal is grazing or simply walking. Specifically, it provides as much propulsive force as all the other limbs combined, EurekAlert explains.
“We found that when a kangaroo is walking, it uses its tail just like a leg. They use it to support, propel and power their motion. In fact, they perform as much mechanical work with their Tails as we do with one of our legs,” says researcher Maxwell Donelan.
“We went into this thinking the tail was primarily used like a strut, a balancing pole, or a one-legged milking stool. What we didn't expect to find was how much power the tails of the kangaroos were producing. It was pretty darn surprising,” adds specialist Rodger Kram.
The wildlife enthusiasts now saying that a kangaroo's tail is basically a fifth leg base their claim on data collected while monitoring red kangaroos in Australia. As part of their investigations, the scientists had five such animals walk on a force-measuring platform and determined how much they used either of their limbs and their tail.