Stuffed Plush
Kangaroo Rat

From the Wildlife Artists. Floppy plush designed with meticulous attention to detail.

8 Inches Tall
The closest thing
to the real thing.

Wildlife Artists Stuffed Plush
Kangaroo Rat
WLPLT2750RK
$16.50

Sold Out
Discontinued
7 Mar 09

Kangaroo rats are found in arid and semi-arid areas of Canada, the United States and Mexico that retain some grass or other vegetation. Their diet includes seeds, leaves, stems, buds, some fruit, and insects. Most kangaroo rat species use their burrows and buried caches nearby to store food against the possibility of bad seasons. The Banner-tailed Kangaroo Rat has been recorded making burrows with several storage chambers up to 25 cm in diameter each, and containing almost six kilograms of stored food.

One special feature of the kangaroo rat is the animal's efficient kidneys. The kangaroo rat has a longer loop of Henle in the nephrons which permit a greater magnitude of countercurrent multiplication and thus a larger medullary vertical osmotic gradient. As a result, these rodents can produce urine that is concentrated up to an osmolarity of almost 6,000 mosm/liter, which is five times more concentrated than maximally concentrated human urine at 1,200 mosm/liter. Because of this tremendous concentration ability, kangaroo rats never have to drink; the H₂O produced metabolically within their cells during oxidation of foodstuff (food plus O₂ yields CO₂ + H₂O + energy) is sufficient for their body. Kangaroo rats lose so little water that they can recover 90% of the loss by using metabolic water gaining the remaining 10% from the small amount of water in their diet. Kangaroo rats lose water mainly by evaporation during gas exchange and gain water mainly from cellular metabolism.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia