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
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
Giant squid have eyes the size of dinner platesMeasuring up to 27 centimetres across, giant squid eyes spot bioluminescent glow.Honey badgers can sleep off venomous cobra bitesTough loose skin and specialized neurotoxin resistance protect honey badgers.A hagfish can turn buckets of water into thick slime in secondsHagfish slime glands release mucus proteins that expand dramatically.Harpy eagle talons are longer than grizzly bear clawsCurved thirteen-centimetre talons exert hundreds of pounds of pressure.Emperor penguins huddle in rotating groups to survive Antarctic winterDense huddles conserve body heat during minus forty degree blizzards.Pythons swallow prey whole by flexing independent jaw bonesFlexible quadrate bones and elastic ligaments let python jaws stretch wide.
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.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- 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.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.