This photo, provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society, shows a Mudgee tree kangaroo calf making its debut from its mother’s pouch last Thursday at the Bronx Zoo in New York. The cub, born in late December, is the second cub born at the Bronx Zoo since 2021.
Tyria Clay/Wildlife Conservation Society/AP
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Tyria Clay/Wildlife Conservation Society/AP
NEW YORK — An arboreal kangaroo’s second baby made its public debut in New York this week, its pink head poking out of its mother’s furry white pouch.
The miniature Mudgee tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus matschiei) was born in December and is the second kangaroo born to the same mother since 2022.
The zoo said in a statement that the tree kangaroo gestates for only about six weeks before immediately crawling into its marsupial mother’s pouch. It takes about seven months for the pups to start poking their heads out of the pouch.
The zoo said there are only about 2,500 tree kangaroos in the wild and 42 in captivity. A spokesman for the Bronx Zoo said in a statement on Friday that the kangaroo’s birth is significant for a network of zoos that aims to protect the genetic diversity of endangered animals.
The cub, born in late December, is the second cub born at the Bronx Zoo since 2021.
Tyria Clay/Wildlife Conservation Society/AP
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Tyria Clay/Wildlife Conservation Society/AP
“There are very few of them, so births are not common,” said Jessica Moody, curator of primates and small mammals at the Bronx Zoo. “So this is a rare and exciting event.” Adding that baby tree kangaroos “may be one of the cutest animals ever. They look like stuffed animals, it’s amazing.”
Tree kangaroos are native to Papua New Guinea’s Huon Peninsula, where they are threatened by habitat destruction and human activities such as hunting, the statement said. They live mainly in trees and are smaller than Australia’s better-known red kangaroos. An adult tree kangaroo weighs 20 to 25 pounds (9-11 kg). Kangaroos are about the size of a human thumb at birth but can grow to 30 inches (76 centimeters).
Wildlife rehabilitation programs often rely on zoos to achieve genetic diversity. For example, wolves reintroduced into the wild are often raised with zoo-born pups, thereby reducing the risk of inbreeding while expanding wild populations.
