New research suggests kangaroos do not have special bacteria in their guts that limits their methane output (through farting, of course).
Published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the new study contradicts research from the 1970s and 1980s that indicated kangaroos' digestive systems were not like other plant-eating animals. Cows, for example, produce methane naturally because of the bacteria in their gut that helps them digest plants.
"The idea that kangaroos have unique gut microbes has been floating around for some time and a great deal of research has gone into discovering these apparently unique microbes," Adam Munn, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong in Australia, said in a press release.
According to Live Science, the study researchers found kangaroos have a normal amount of gut bacteria for an animal of its size.
"Kangaroos are not mysteriously low methane-producing creatures, but herbivores with an active methane-producing microbe community," Marcus Clauss, from the University of Zurich in Switzerland, said in the release.
The study also has some climate change implications, as methane is a greenhouse gas produced organically.
"It has a global-warming potential [about] 25 times - depends on how you look at it - that of carbon dioxide," Alex Hristov, a professor of animal nutrition and diet at Pennsylvania State University, told Live Science. "So it's an important greenhouse gas."
