Okay, here’s an indelicate observation. Like many animals, kangaroos fart. And when they do, that gas emerges spiked with methane.
More methane is escaping the behinds of kangaroos than earlier research had suggested. That’s the conclusion of researchers in a new study. It was published online November 4 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Explainer: Global warming and the greenhouse effect
Methane is a greenhouse gas. Like carbon dioxide, it contributes to global warming. Animals can produce methane. It comes out in farts and burps. Knowing how that gas is produced in ‘roos might one day help farmers curb the amount of gas emitted by livestock, such as cattle.
Kangaroo toots had been considered easy on the environment because they had been thought to contain little to no methane. But a new study shows that may not be true. It was led by Adam Munn, a wildlife biologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Munn and his colleagues show that a kangaroo can produce nearly 1,000 liters (260 gallons) of methane per year.
