They got their first glimpse of this little bundle of joy six months ago.
But the keepers at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium didn’t get a good look at their new baby red kangaroo until it recently started peeking — and now popping — out of its momma’s pouch.
It did so yesterday to the delight of many ecstatic kids and their parents, hopping within feet of its mother’s side, nibbling a bit of grass.
“It’s very exciting, especially since it’s been so loooooong coming,” said Ashley Wright, a keeper for the zoo’s “Australia and the Islands” exhibit.
That’s where the baby and its mother are on display with 13 other kangaroos. Keepers haven’t yet gotten close enough to tell whether the baby, also known as a joey, is male or female. They won’t name the animal until they know the gender.
It’s the zoo’s first baby kangaroo on display since 2005, which has added to the anticipation, Wright said.
The Columbus Zoo received four young females from the Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Wichita, Kan., in September and hoped one would be pregnant.
All four females had been with a breeding male, but “it was anyone’s guess,” Wright said. “We thought our best chances were with Stirling, which at a little over a year old was the oldest of the bunch.”
Tanganyika Wildlife Park officials weren’t aware of the birth until yesterday.
“We’re always excited to help out the Columbus Zoo and Jack Hanna,” Tanganyika director Jim Fouts said. “Baby kangaroos are great. They’re so cute.”
The Columbus keepers got their first glimpse of the joey — in pouch — in October.
Barely bigger than a jelly bean, baby roos must crawl from one of the mother’s uteri up her body to the safety of her pouch, Wright said.
Because its eyes aren’t yet developed, the joey instinctively relies on its forelegs to grip the mom’s fur and reach the pouch. It then spends the next four or five months growing inside.
Keepers started to see parts of the joey — an ear, a foot — sticking out of Stirling’s pouch about a month ago. Not quite ready for the world, the joey was moving around, trying to make more space for itself, Wright said.
Now it’s about the size of a Chihuahua. Adult females grow to 4 or 5 feet tall and weigh 80 pounds, while males usually top out at 6 feet and 200 pounds.
The baby will keep returning to the pouch until it’s 10 or 11 months old and doesn’t fit anymore, Wright said. And it will stay by its mother’s side, nursing, for several more months.
As for Stirling: “She was a highly strung animal when we first got her, but now she’s really calm,” Wright said.
“Motherhood really suits her.”
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/04/22/pocket-size-baby.html
But the keepers at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium didn’t get a good look at their new baby red kangaroo until it recently started peeking — and now popping — out of its momma’s pouch.
It did so yesterday to the delight of many ecstatic kids and their parents, hopping within feet of its mother’s side, nibbling a bit of grass.
“It’s very exciting, especially since it’s been so loooooong coming,” said Ashley Wright, a keeper for the zoo’s “Australia and the Islands” exhibit.
That’s where the baby and its mother are on display with 13 other kangaroos. Keepers haven’t yet gotten close enough to tell whether the baby, also known as a joey, is male or female. They won’t name the animal until they know the gender.
It’s the zoo’s first baby kangaroo on display since 2005, which has added to the anticipation, Wright said.
The Columbus Zoo received four young females from the Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Wichita, Kan., in September and hoped one would be pregnant.
All four females had been with a breeding male, but “it was anyone’s guess,” Wright said. “We thought our best chances were with Stirling, which at a little over a year old was the oldest of the bunch.”
Tanganyika Wildlife Park officials weren’t aware of the birth until yesterday.
“We’re always excited to help out the Columbus Zoo and Jack Hanna,” Tanganyika director Jim Fouts said. “Baby kangaroos are great. They’re so cute.”
The Columbus keepers got their first glimpse of the joey — in pouch — in October.
Barely bigger than a jelly bean, baby roos must crawl from one of the mother’s uteri up her body to the safety of her pouch, Wright said.
Because its eyes aren’t yet developed, the joey instinctively relies on its forelegs to grip the mom’s fur and reach the pouch. It then spends the next four or five months growing inside.
Keepers started to see parts of the joey — an ear, a foot — sticking out of Stirling’s pouch about a month ago. Not quite ready for the world, the joey was moving around, trying to make more space for itself, Wright said.
Now it’s about the size of a Chihuahua. Adult females grow to 4 or 5 feet tall and weigh 80 pounds, while males usually top out at 6 feet and 200 pounds.
The baby will keep returning to the pouch until it’s 10 or 11 months old and doesn’t fit anymore, Wright said. And it will stay by its mother’s side, nursing, for several more months.
As for Stirling: “She was a highly strung animal when we first got her, but now she’s really calm,” Wright said.
“Motherhood really suits her.”
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/04/22/pocket-size-baby.html