Penny Wright. age 10, of Orangeville, Ont.  for her question:

That are the marsupials?

Last week a rather close relative of the marsupials introduced himself into Andy’s column. This animal was the fur coated, web footed, egg laying platypus, first cousin to the spiny anteater   who is a true rnarsupial.  The word marsupial is coined from an older word for purse, or pouch. This might give us a clue   until we wonder why any animal would need a purse, for none of them use money. Ah, but a purse or a pouch may be used to keep other valuables besides money. And what might some animals consider the most precious thing in the world? Junior, of course.

A mother marsupial is one of those charming animals who carries her precious babies in a built in pouch. The only marsupial of the New World is the opossum. Most of these animals, a vast variety of them, live in Australia and the nearby islands. There are mousy marsupials and ratty marsupials. There are marsupials like moles, like badgers, like flying squirrels, like dogs and chubby bears. The kangaroos and their relatives are marsupials who cannot be confused with any other animals.

Marsupial babies are born very small and quite helpless. A baby kangaroo is about as big as your little finger and just as bare. He lives for six months in his mother’s wonderful fur lined pouch. When fully grown, he may stand seven feet tall and tip the scales at 200 pounds. The cuddly koala bear is equally small at birth and he may be several years old before he gives up the security of mammals pouch entirely.

All marsupial babies are fed on mothers milk, which means that these animals must be classed as mammals.    The spiny anteater lays eggs, but when her babies hatch they too feed on mother’s milk.

They also mast be classed as mammals. The baby marsupial finds his milk supply right there inside mothers cozy pouch.

Most of the marsupials are gentle vegetarians. A few of them eat flesh or insects. The biggest of these is the thylacine, alias the marsupial wolf, alias the marsupial tiger. He is no bigger than a collie dog and hence no threat to the mighty kangaroo. He dines on wallabies and the small ratty and mousy marsupials. This toothy fellow has a dog like head and a striped back.

The so called Tasmanian devil resembles a bewildered bear cub.  He too is a meat eater. There is also the marsupial spotted cat who preys upon the marsupial rats, mice and on insects. The marsupial mole is, of course, a born burrower and he feeds upon worms   which are not marsupials. The bandicoot is a long earedbadger type marsupial who eats vegetables and insects.