A precious new joey at Healesville Sanctuary has keepers jumping for joy, with a blue-eyed Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo making its pouch premiere.
The youngster is a male, approximately six months old, and is now peeping out to see the world for the first time.
It’s the fourth offspring for experience parents, mum Mani (Pron: Mah-knee) and dad Bagam (Pron: Bag-am) who are part of an international breeding program for the endangered species.
Healesville Sanctuary mammal keeper Katherine Sarris has been monitoring the development of the joey each week, documenting when it first had whiskers, when it grew little claws, and even when the joey first opened its eyes.
“We’ve been working closely with Mani and building up our relationship for many years, so she allows us to do voluntary pouch checks,” Ms Sarris said.
“When we were having a little peek to see how the joey was doing, we were able to tell it was a male very early on.
“It’s exciting to the see the joey become more confident and continue to pop out of the pouch as the weather warms up.”
The Tree Kangaroo joey doesn’t have a name just yet although it will be inspired by the culture of Papua New Guinea where this species is found.
Zookeepers are busy racking their brains to come up with a name.
The Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo is the only non-native species at the Sanctuary.
This joey has an orange and yellow striped pattern on its tail that is like its mum’s.
The previous offspring from this pair of Tree Kangaroos include Chimbu, Kofi and Ori (Pron: Chim-boo, Co-fee, Or-ree).
Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroos are native to Papua New Guinea and are listed as endangered with a decreasing population on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list.
Two species of Tree Kangaroos are native to Australia.
The Bennett’s tree-kangaroo and the Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo.
Both species are found in Far North Queensland.
Zoos Victoria is supporting Tree Kangaroos in the wild through its Coffee for Wildlife community conservation campaign in partnership with Genovese.
Coffee for Wildlife is sustainably sourced shade-grown coffee, and every bag sold supports projects that empower people to live in harmony with forests and wildlife.
Make your cup count.
Support farmers, protect farmers and save wildlife.
For more information visit zoo.org.au/coffee
