Wild Kangaroos Are Natural Lefties, Biologists Say

A new study suggests that most wild kangaroos tend to favor their left hands while accomplishing common tasks like feeding and grooming.

According to lead researcher Yegor Malashichev of Saint Petersburg State University in Russia, wild kangaroos in Tasmania, Australia were found to have "a natural preference for their left hands when performing particular actions - grooming the nose, picking a leaf or bending for a tree branch."

The researchers feel that the findings are significant since this is the first demonstration of population-level "handedness" in a species other than human beings who are predominately right handed.

During their study, the researchers noticed that red and eastern grey kangaroos were more apparent in their left handedness while the red necked wallaby appeared to use its left hand for fine motor skills and the right for tasks that required more physicality.

The researchers were studying the brains of mammals to look for consistencies especially among those animals that walk upright.

The findings surprised the researchers since Kangaroos do not have the neural circuit that forms as a link between the two brain hemispheres, which is a common trait in many other mammals.

"What we observed in reality, we did not initially expect," Malashichev said. "But the more we observed, the more it became obvious that there is something really new and interesting in the wild."