Question

1. Explain the type of molecules/elements the kangaroo rat obtains from its food and how those elements are used in the body?

2. The Scientific Concepts used by the texas kangaroo rat ?

Answer 1

Answer 1: Kangaroo rats are native to desert regions, where they do not have access to water regularly so the prominently these rats obtain water from the food they eat (mostly seeds) by metabolic oxidation of the food molecule and hence they do not require much water to drink. Research states that kangaroo rats can extract around half a gram of water from each gram of seed consumed.

About using the water molecule inside the body, the major water loss in any animal is through sweat, but kangaroo rat has evolved specially to lower its metabolic reactions to lower the loss of water from body pores. They have a very special kidney function where the kidney reduces and concentrate their urine to almost a crystal form and hence, further reducing the loss of water.

Answer 2: The texas kangaroo rat, as the name suggests in endemic to Texas. The scientific concepts used by them are:

• They have an association with mesquite plant species. Mesquite is the group of the plant of legume species and generally, the texas kangaroo rat lives around these plant not far than 0.8 km as they depend on the seeds as there food.
• They are sexually dimorphic. It means that the two sexes of the same specie shows differences other than the sexual organs and in texas kangaroo rats it is marked by males being larger than the females.