Mondo Knows Facts

Kangaroos use their thick muscular tail as a fifth leg

When moving slowly, a kangaroo tail provides as much propulsive force as its legs.

During slow crawling locomotion, red kangaroos place their muscular tails on the ground alongside forelimbs to support body weight while swinging their large hind feet forward. Biomechanical studies reveal the tail acts as a third leg delivering major propulsive power.

Where this comes from

Encyclopædia Britannica

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Tags: kangaroo, marsupial, locomotion

Kangaroos use their thick muscular tail as a fifth leg: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
When moving slowly, a kangaroo tail provides as much propulsive force as its legs. The figure is taken from Encyclopædia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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