Baby Tree Kangaroo raised by surrogate Rock Wallaby

June 29, 2015 7:37 PM

In a world-first for conservation a tree kangaroo has been raised by a rock-wallaby surrogate mother [SLYT] When Makaia, a Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo, was only five weeks old, he lost his mum. He needed a nice warm pouch to grow big and strong in, so Adelaide Zoo tried something that had never been done before... a Yellow-foot Rock-wallaby was found to be his surrogate mum. Up until now this special breeding technique, known as 'cross-fostering', has only been done with closely related wallaby species. (Includes footage of a baby tree-kangaroo unravelling a toilet-roll dispenser)
posted by coleboptera (20 comments total)

omg adorable.
posted by suelac at 7:51 PM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Alright, Australia. You can stop making up animals, now.
posted by poe at 7:59 PM on June 29, 2015 [9 favorites]

A) as a procreating mammal I would just like to say, pouch-having marsupials are CREEPY. And B) it is legit hard to tell your wallabys and kangaroos apart.

Like, it's not enough to bear live young, you have to bear them still fetus-sized so they crawl into your creepy external pouch and nurse for six months? COME ON MARSUPIALS, being a mammal is horrifying enough!

Could be worse. Could be monotremes. Or orcas, whose birth procedures almost put me off reproducing.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:53 PM on June 29, 2015

Yeah, but think of all the money you save on Baby Bjorns.
posted by Thella at 9:42 PM on June 29, 2015

it is legit hard to tell your wallabys and kangaroos apart

As far as I can tell - after asking proper real Australian Mammalogists - the technical way to tell them apart is that if it's littler than this (vaguely waves hand at around waist height) it's a wallaby. Unless it's deliberately in a tree.
posted by coleboptera at 11:09 PM on June 29, 2015 [10 favorites]

colebptera- "unless it's deliberately in a tree" is one of my new favorite qualifying sentences.
posted by mrzarquon at 11:41 PM on June 29, 2015 [11 favorites]

As an Australian, I am ashamed to say this is the first time I've ever seen or heard of a tree kangaroo. It has significantly improved my feelings towards kangaroos, though.
posted by retrograde at 12:30 AM on June 30, 2015

Retrograde, tree kangaroos aren't Australian, they're all in PNG, so you're excused for not knowing them.
posted by wilful at 12:44 AM on June 30, 2015

Some of them are found in Australia - the Lumholz's and Bennett's tree kangaroos live in Queensland
posted by coleboptera at 1:35 AM on June 30, 2015

Not all in PNG! There are two species of tree kangaroo native to Australia, Bennett's and Lumholtz's tree kangaroos, both in far north Queensland.

I have heard theories that tree kangaroos are behind some cryptozoology-type sightings of strange animals in Australia, particularly big cats and extinct carnivorous marsupials, because if you catch sight of something like this in a tree your brain probably isn't going to jump to "oh right it's a kangaroo" in the first instance.
posted by Catseye at 1:42 AM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

A guy living near us in London (UK, that is) had several white wallabies... darned near made me crash the car, first time I saw one out of the corner of my eye.

He also had a giant tortoise, and that was way cool.
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 2:10 AM on June 30, 2015

some cryptozoology-type sightings of strange animals in Australia

You have lots of strange animals as it is (eg: tree kangaroos), you don't need people making up more of them.
posted by jeather at 5:16 AM on June 30, 2015

Baby Tree Kangaroo raised by surrogate Rock Wallaby

Fine, but what happens when a baby Rock Wallaby gets raised by a surrogate Tree Kangaroo? THAT'S WHEN SOCIETY FALLS APART.
posted by mcstayinskool at 5:30 AM on June 30, 2015

Alright, Australia. You can stop making up animals, now.

This is not an actual Australian animal because it does not have venom that will instantly kill you as soon as you look at it sideways.
posted by The Bellman at 6:10 AM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

(I stand corrected).
posted by wilful at 6:32 AM on June 30, 2015

I have heard theories that tree kangaroos are behind some cryptozoology-type sightings of strange animals in Australia, particularly big cats and extinct carnivorous marsupials, because if you catch sight of something like this in a tree your brain probably isn't going to jump to "oh right it's a kangaroo" in the first instance.

If I saw that, my brain would probably wonder how the hell a fossa got to Australia from Madagascar. So, yeah.
posted by The Bellman at 7:04 AM on June 30, 2015

Glad they were able to save the tree kangaroo. He's a cute little dude, though I bet he's a handful to look after. For sure, his toilet-paper-unrolling skills rival those of any cat I've seen on this here internet.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 7:57 AM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yaaaaaay!!!
posted by Room 641-A at 8:09 AM on June 30, 2015

Who the hell names their child Gayl Males? I am legit mad at that person's parents. Why would you do that?!
posted by maryr at 8:19 AM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

One of the deepest and most lingering pleasures of my life was wandering through one of the many gorges of the Flinders Ranges (South Australia) in spring-time, and coming across a small handful of gorgeous yellow footed rock wallabies grazing in the late afternoon sun. My friend and I thought we were being quiet as church mice, but evidently that wasn't the case: in one of the most astonishing feats of power and grace I've ever seen they stood up, surveyed the gorge floor, and bounded up a near vertical rock face with just a dozen or so huge, beautifully controlled bounces, in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Utterly awe-inspiring...
posted by pjm at 9:40 PM on June 30, 2015