If you can, if you're at home right now, where embarrassment is unlikely, try hopping around for a moment.

Put your feet together, think of a place to go, go to the fridge, get yourself a drink or something,

and try hopping to get there. In fact, if you're up for it, I would challenge you to try hopping

around until I get to the end of this

introduction. Feel how stiff and clumsy and awkward you are? This isn't your fault. When animals

try to do things they didn't evolve to do, it's never quite right. If you've ever seen a dog

trained to walk on their hind legs, well, they's never quite right. If you've ever seen a dog trained to walk on their

hind legs, well, they look almost as foolish as you right now. But hopping is unusual to begin

with, right? It's this uneven, jolting form of movement. And the idea that it could ever become

operable as an efficient, effective form of movement. And the idea that it could ever become operable as an efficient,

effective form of locomotion seems crazy. Today, we're going to talk about the largest

hopping animal on earth. The Red Kangaroo, Osfranter Rufus. Let's find out what they have that we don't.

I'm Mackin. This is Species.

Welcome to the show. So at the start of the week, I sent out an announcement on the mailing list that I have a book coming out, a Boston Beastier. If you like this podcast, I promise you'll love this book. It's very similar to species, except the focus is going to be on urban wildlife exclusively. I talk about how creatures ended up in Boston. I tell stories about

their lives in our shared city. And of course, I tell you everything you want to know about them.

The book is already written, has been for some time. It's getting illustrated by the wonderful

artist, Kate Louise Powell. And while it'll be ready to go as soon as it gets illustrated,

the timeline for publication is still TBD.

The theme music for this show actually isn't long enough for me to talk about the book in much more detail,

so I'll talk about it on the other end.

Thank you, Eric and the Animals for playing me in.

And now without further ado, I present to you the kangaroo.

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