Musky Rat-Kangaroo Walking Video How Musky Rat-Kangaroos Move (Locomation)

Even though Musky rat-kangaroo has large hind legs like other macropods, it doesn't hop at all. Instead, it bounds along on all four legs more like a rabbit, rather than hop on two legs like a kangaroo.

The Musky rat-kangaroo’s usual mode of locomotion is a slow gait in which the forepaws are placed on the ground and the hind feet brought forward in unison beneath its body and placed behind the font limbs. Then the front legs are lifted, the body extended, and the front paws placed a distance ahead of the rear one, and the process repeated. Unlike a kangaroo that uses its tail as a support at slow speeds, the Musky rat-kangaroo holds is tail above the ground and stretched out behind it. The tail does not act as a support. Fast locomotion is a version of the slow gait but with its hind legs places forward outside its fore legs.

Whilst the Musky rat-kangaroo has a thumb-like toe on each of its hind legs and a prehensile tail, both of which are characteristic of a tree-climbing animal, it does not climb trees.

What is A Musky Rat Kangaroo