Indie has a BABY! (The birth of a baby Kangaroo)

Witnessing the miracle of childbirth for a kangaroo is a rare experience for us, mere humans. So when Indie returned home to be close to her foster-mumma I knew I was in for the experience of a lifetime. For the 11 days she's been home, she has been marking our veranda with her sent, bossing Max around (while at the same time keeping him close), and cuddling her mumma.

This morning on March 8, 2023 around at 8:30am she started vigorously cleaning out her pouch (aka the nursery) and then she started visibly having contractions around 9am. She would get up, fuss with her pouch and then hunch over in very apparent discomfort. The contractions would stop, and she would plop down and rest for a bit until the next one rolled in.

At 9:38am her water broke and within seconds her tiny embryo of a baby, no bigger than the tip of my smallest finger journeyed out of her cloaca and pulled itself up the wet path she had created for it, through her fur to the opening of her pouch (this first half of the journey took about three and a half minutes). She kept tracking its progress and even after it had disappeared into the opening, she nudged it along licking the outside of her pouch until it reached its destination, fusing to one of her four teats where it will now live for the next 8-9 months or so.
#kangaroosinthewild
#kangaroo #kangaroos #wildlife #animals #nature #animal