See the Growth of a Kangaroo Baby!

One of our female red kangaroos has a 4-month-old joey in her pouch! The little one, who has been confirmed as female by her animal care team, was born to mom Lilly and dad Dr. Roolittle.

Kangaroo pregnancy and early roo-hood is pretty unique! Kangaroos are pregnant for about a month before a 1-inch-long underdeveloped joey is born. At this stage, they have the necessary forearms to crawl from their mother’s cloaca into the pouch, but their back legs are very underdeveloped. Once in the pouch, the joey latches to their mother’s nipple and continues growing and developing.

Kangaroo babies hit many major developmental milestones while in the pouch! Lilly’s joey’s eyes are still closed, and she (yes, she – keepers have seen a pouch on the baby!) is just starting to grow fur. Joeys typically start leaving the pouch at about 7-9 months old. Lilly’s baby isn’t hopping out of her pouch quite yet, but you might see the pouch move! She’s getting large enough that the pouch visibly bulges and sags.

Our animal care team has been monitoring Lilly and her baby since birth. They’ve worked with most of our female red kangaroos to get them comfortable with voluntary pouch checks. This lets our keepers be aware of a joey in our mob and they can begin to monitor the baby’s development.

“The day that we found her joey, we had seen her grooming the outside of her pouch in the morning, which is what cued us that she may have given birth and licked her pouch to allow the joey to climb into it,” Kristen said.
As always, these checks are voluntary, and keepers treat participating kangaroos with a snack. As a hand-raised ‘roo, Lilly is very comfortable with her keepers – she gets fed a bottle during pouch checks!
#kangaroo #animals #nature #australia