Wild Inside: The Red Kangaroo

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Wild Inside returns for a new series to take a look at some of our planet’s most exceptional and unusual creatures from an entirely new perspective: the inside. Whilst we can learn a lot from observing the outside, the secrets to the success of any animal – whether they swim, fly, or hop – lies in their complex internal anatomy. How do these wild animals survive and thrive in harsh and changing environments? To truly understand we need to delve inside.

Professor Ben Garrod, evolutionary biologist from the University of East Anglia, and expert veterinary surgeon Dr Jess French, open up and investigate what makes each of these animals unique, in terms of their extraordinary anatomy, behaviour and their evolutionary history. Along the way, they reveal some unique adaptations which give each species a leg (or claw) up in surviving in the big, wild world.

The series begins with an icon of the outback – known best for its hopping, boxing, and cosy pouch – the red kangaroo. Despite the immense heat and lack of water, these marsupials dominate Australia, with their evolutionary history driving them to success. From the powerful legs which allow them to hop up to 40km an hour, to an unexpected reproductive system that keeps their populations plentiful, Ben, Jess and marsupial expert Dr Jack Ashby reveal a mammalian anatomy which holds many surprises.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC sounds this is discovery on the
0:31.2	BBC World Service.
0:33.0	All right, Jess, here we are again.
0:35.0	Here we are.
0:36.0	I'm going to just put a few things out.
0:40.0	We're about to embark on something we hardly ever witness, a look inside some of nature's most
0:47.1	wondrous animals.
0:48.8	We've got an animal today that I think is universally recognizable and yet I'm willing to bet most of us know very
0:59.6	little about how this animal actually works. It's a rare chance to delve into some amazing and very different wild animals,
1:07.0	inhabiting land, sea and sky.
1:10.0	Over the next four programs we'll be finding out what makes the ultimate animal.
1:14.8	What's their key to successful survival in an ever-changing environment?
1:19.6	And while we can gain a lot by observing their behavior from the outside, I'd argue that to truly
1:25.2	understand these animals, we need to look at what's on the inside too. I'm Dr Ben Garrett, professor of evolutionary biology and science engagement at the University of East Anglia.
1:38.0	So she's laid out on the table in front of us already, she's about one and a half meters long.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.