Vicky Jones, age 11, of Orange, Va., for her question:

DOES THE MALE KANGAROO HAVE A POUCH?

In the world of nature, the best parents tend to be the smartest. The not so smart types tend to leave child care entirely to the females, and among the really backward types both parents ignore their offspring. The kangaroo, let's face it, rates only as fairly intelligent. So we would expect the male to leave all the child care to the female  which he does.

For countless ages, the big kangaroos of Australia had little opportunity to sharpen their wits. Food was plentiful, and their natural enemies were few and far between. Hence they had no tough problems to challenge and brighten their brains.

This, no doubt, is the main reason why the male kangaroo leaves the entire business of child care to the female. Besides, he does not have that special baby care pouch on his tummy  and naturally he does not give birth to the baby.

The birth of a baby kangaroo is so amazing that early observers were unable to believe the facts. It occurs about 33 days after mating, when the development of the embryo has barely begun. The blind, helpless infant measures no more than 3/4 of an inch and weighs about 1/35 of an ounce.

Before the birth, the expectant mother carefully licks and cleans out the inside of her fur lined pouch. Then she either sits or stands to allow the infant to emerge from the birth canal under her tail. She may watch, but she does not help her naked, bean size baby find his way to her pouch.

At this stage of his development, his hind legs are very small, a situation which greatly changes before he becomes an adult kangaroo. He uses his longer, stronger arms to grasp his mother's fur and scrambles unaided toward her pouch. This remarkable first journey takes about three minutes. Once inside the pouch, the successful midget attaches himself to one of her four faucets, where he spends the next eight months or so ¬growing as he feeds on mother's milk.

During this period, the pouchless father kangaroo seemsunaware that he has become a parent. Later he pays little or no attention, even when his 10 pound offspring pokes out his head and emerges from his pouch  looking just like a small kangaroo. So far as we know, all the duties of protecting and educating the little Joey are performed by the female.