In November last year caretakers at Adelaide Zoo tried something crazy.
They were attempting to save a tiny joey who was orphaned after a tree branch crushed his mother.
So they transplanted tiny Makaia to the pouch of a surrogate mother – a yellow-foot rock wallaby. The zoo says this is the first time they have transplanted a baby roo to an unrelated species, but seven months on Makaia is in strong health.
“Acting on pure adrenalin, zoo keepers made the decision to try and save the tiny joey,” Adelaide Zoo wrote in a media release.
“Due to the young age of the joey, hand rearing was not possible, which meant the only option available was to try and ‘cross-foster’ the joey into the pouch of a surrogate wallaby mother.”
Adelaide Zoo Veterinarian, Dr David McLelland, says cross fostering has never been attempted on a tree kangaroo until that fateful morning.
“We’ve had great success over the years’ cross-fostering between wallaby species, but the specialised breeding technique has never been used on a tree kangaroo,” Dr McLelland said.
“Not only are tree kangaroos distant relatives of wallabies, they also have many behavioural and physical differences. We had no idea if the yellow-foot would accept the tree kangaroo joey, but if we wanted to save the joey we had to try our luck.”
Adelaide Zoo will share its findings with other zoos around the world to help guide breeding efforts for endangered tree kangaroo species and increase the success of internationally coordinated captive-breeding programs.
“He truly is a special little guy and I am so pleased that Adelaide Zoo has the staff and expertise to successfully perform this world first cross-foster. Makaia is the result of all our hard work – we can’t wait to share his amazing story with the world!” Said Adelaide Zoo Team Leader of Natives, Gayl Males.
“He stayed with his wallaby mum for about three and half months until I took over caring for him and in effect became his third mum – He’s certainly a cheeky little fellow and loves running amok, testing the boundaries using my home as his personal playground, climbing on everything, pulling toilet paper off the rolls, but he also loves quiet time cuddling with my husband in the evening while we watch TV.”
Makaia is set to appear in his first magazine feature in the July/August issue of Australian Geographic.
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