Explore
Also Available in:
This article is from
Creation 26(3):18–20, June 2004

Browse our latest digital issue Subscribe
Editor’s note: As Creation magazine has been continuously published since 1978, we are publishing some of the articles from the archives for historical interest, such as this. For teaching and sharing purposes, readers are advised to supplement these historic articles with more up-to-date ones suggested in the Related Articles and Further Reading below.

Kangaroo rats

by

camel-kangaroo-elephant
Like the camel, the kangaroo rat can survive in the desert with virtually no water. Like the kangaroo, the kangaroo rat balances on its hind legs and hops. Like the elephant, the kangaroo rat ‘dust bathes’. But the kangaroo rat is not related to any of them.
wikipedia.org kangaroo-rat

Despite its name and hopping gait, the kangaroo rat actually has more in common with a camel than with its much larger marsupial namesake.

The kangaroo rat is a rodent, but it is unlike any other rodent on Earth: it is able to survive in the desert with virtually no drinking water.1 The camel is the only other mammal that can match this feat, and yet the kangaroo rat looks nothing like the ‘ship of the desert’.

This humble creature lives in the desert regions of North America. They have a large head and eyes, short forelimbs and long hind limbs, and a body that ranges in length from 10 to 16 cm (4 to 6.5 in).1 They can jump up to 1.8 m (6 ft) in a single leap.

Like its marsupial namesake, the kangaroo rat balances on its hind legs and hops. But that’s where the similarity ends. Kangaroo rats live in burrows by day, foraging by night for seeds, leaves and other vegetation, and carrying food in their cheek pouches to store in their underground homes.1 They also occasionally eat insects.

But how is it possible to live with virtually no drinking water? What makes the kangaroo rat different from other mammals, which would die within days in the desert without water? The answer lies mainly in the rat’s kidneys. Research has shown that the kangaroo rat produces the most concentrated urine of all mammals, and only passes a few drops per day.2

The Loop of Henle

The Loop of Henle

The specialized kidney structure known as the Loop of Henle is much longer than in humans and most other creatures. This enables maximum concentration of urine and so minimizes water loss.

Humans drink a lot of water, and also gain moisture through food. As such, our urine is quite dilute. Kangaroo rats, on the other hand, take in very little water and so produce urine that is even more concentrated than that of the camel (which also concentrates its urine to survive without water).3 This means that the kangaroo rat loses little water in its urine.

Scientists have marvelled at how the kangaroo rat’s kidney works. The study of this organ—in particular the Loop of Henle, which enables the concentration process to take place—has led to a better understanding of how human kidneys work.4 The kangaroo rat’s Loop of Henle is much longer than that of other rodents. This suggests that the kangaroo rat’s amazing ability to survive in deserts may be an adaptation from an original created rodent kind.5

The kangaroo rat’s behaviour and habitat complement its physiological features. The rat’s nocturnal lifestyle helps keep its body temperature down, which minimizes water loss. During the day, the rodent keeps cool from the searing desert heat by remaining in underground burrows.2 The high humidity of the burrow also reduces the amount of water lost through breathing.

Moreover, kangaroo rats have a cooling system in their nasal passages that reduces moisture loss. The rats keep their nasal passages at a lower temperature than their core body temperature. Air exhaled from the lungs cools as it passes through the nose. This causes water vapour picked up from the lungs to condense on the inside of the nose, where it is reabsorbed back into the body.2 Air conditioners dry the air in a room in the same way.

The kangaroo rat’s body temperature normally exceeds that of its environment. This also reduces the need for evaporative cooling (sweating), because the animal can radiate heat. Kangaroo rats have sweat glands only in their feet.2

Kangaroo rats are amazing creatures with incredible features that enable them to survive in their desert habitat. They are certainly wonders of creation.

Kangaroo rat facts

  • No-one has found fossils that show a sequence of change from a non–kangaroo-rat ancestor to the kangaroo rats. The only fossils found were clearly already kangaroo rats and these almost certainly formed after the Flood.1
  • There are 59 species in the kangaroo-rat family, which includes so-called ‘pocket mice’. These may all have come from an original kind created by God on Day 6 of the Creation Week (Genesis 1:24).
  • Kangaroo-rat young are known as pups.2
  • Kangaroo rats commonly ‘dust bathe’ after foraging (elephants also dust bathe). They must dust bathe regularly or their fur becomes matted and sores may develop on their backs.2
  • The rats also ‘footdrum’, beating their hind feet against the ground. This perhaps deters predators, specifically snakes, or it could advertise the kangaroo rat’s territory.2
  • They have many more facial muscles than most other mammals. Night photography has revealed that the 42 pairs of facial muscles are used to help the nocturnal kangaroo rats ‘feel’ their way in the dark. As they hop on their back legs, the whiskers keep in contact with the desert surface, enabling the foragers to feel their surroundings.3

Notes

  1. Fossils exist in rocks designated as ‘Pliocene’, which mostly have the hallmarks of being post-Flood.
  2. Connolly, F., University of California, Heermann’s Kangaroo Rat, animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu, 16 February 2004.
  3. Smith, E. Norbert, Ph.D., Kangaroo rats; multiple nightmares, godofcreation.com, 8 December 2003.
Posted on homepage: 25 June 2014

References and notes

  1. Kangaroo rat, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2002. Return to text.
  2. Osmoregulatory adaptations of the kangaroo rat, people.hofstra.edu, 8 December 2003. Return to text.
  3. Kidneys and concentrated urine, bio.davidson.edu, 8 December 2003. Return to text.
  4. Smith, E. N., Ph.D., Kangaroo rats; multiple nightmares, godofcreation.com, 8 December 2003. Return to text.
  5. Editor's note: The created rodent ancestor of kangaroo rats could have had the genes for a variety of lengths of the Loop of Henle. Natural selection could then have concentrated the genes for long length, resulting in rapid adaptation to an extreme desert environment. Alternatively, a developmental control gene that regulates the length of the loops could have mutated, resulting in it switching off later, causing longer loops. Such changes do not involve adding new complex genetic information and so could have happened naturally, within the limits of the kind created by God on Day 6 of the Creation Week. Return to text.

Helpful Resources