How Kangaroos Got Their Pouches

Once there was a hardworking kangaroo. Every day she would go down to the goppers, which was a very beautiful water hole, despite its name. She would drink from 8:00 to 9:00. But one day her schedule did not go according to plan. When she arrived at the goppers, she suddenly had a very painful feeling in her waist. Usually it would just go away by itself and it did, but after a minute it came again.

“I’d better just lie down and get some rest,” said the kangaroo.

Just before she went to sleep, she felt a giant pain. Then after a minute she heard something. She looked down, and to her surprise she saw a baby kangaroo, a rather fat one. In fact, it was a really fat one. Right then she felt a mix of emotions; she was both overjoyed and worried.

As it turned out, her baby kangaroo was very lazy. After two years the baby kangaroo still wanted to be carried, but back in those days kangaroos didn’t have pouches.

One day, when they went on their walk to the goppers, the baby was tired halfway through the trip and just sat down. The mother came and picked him up, but after a while she got tired, too, so she put the baby down and looked around. All she found was a leather pouch. She sat down and thought for a while.

“I have an idea,” shouted the kangaroo. She sewed the leather pouch to her stomach, put the baby inside, and carried him the rest of the way.

The kangaroo lived so long that eventually the leather pouch became part of her, and when she ha another baby girl kangaroo, she had a pouch, too.

To this day, female kangaroos all over the world are born with a pouch to hold their babies.