That’s the conclusion reached by a group of scientists who have become experts on animal flatulence in their quest to better understand how methane emissions work.

The Australian-Swiss research team, including the University of Wollongong’s Adam Munn, is ready to pour water on hopes our largest marsupials could help reduce the massive amounts of methane generated by agriculture and livestock.

Dr Munn, from UoW’s Institute for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, said the methane from roos came mainly from flatulence rather then burping.

“We knew that the kangaroos would produce little methane, but certainly not zero, and the question remained as to why,” he said. 

“The main hypotheses behind kangaroos producing little methane have focused on kangaroos having a unique microbiome that produces less methane, mainly from flatulence rather than burping like cows and sheep.

“But, without wanting to burst the bubble of the microbiologists, our findings suggest otherwise.”

Microbiome refers to the bacteria population in the gut, also known as gut fauna.

Efforts have been underway to reduce greenhouse emissions from ruminant livestock by replacing their gut fauna with that from kangaroos and other low-emitting animals. But the research work shows this is unlikely to succeed.

Professor Marcus Clauss from the University of Zurich said the reason for lower methane from kangaroos was to do with their stomach structure, which is different to cows and sheep.

“We think that the methane is low because of the way food moves through the kangaroo stomach, and not because of a unique gut fauna,” he said.

They have previously worked on measuring methane from species including camels, llamas, rodents, rabbits, horses, ostriches, rheas, emus and sloths.

Their findings will be published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.