Amazing “pouch cam” images provide a rare glimpse into the hidden world of an endangered baby kangaroo after he was born the size of a jellybean at a UK zoo.
Experts say the special arrival marks a major conservation milestone for one of the world’s most threatened marsupials—the endangered Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo.
Keepers at the Chester Zoo monitored the pouch-cam between October and December watching the joey’s development inside the kangaroo’s pouch, allowing them to identify it as a healthy male.
The joey arrived to its parents Kitawa and Kayjo, thanks to an international conservation breeding program aimed at ensuring the future survival of the species.
The zoo says the pouch footage (which may be too graphic for some) and the team’s findings are expected to provide valuable insight for similar initiatives worldwide.
“When people think of kangaroos, they rarely imagine small, fluffy animals living high in the treetops,” said Matthew Lloyd, the tree kangaroo expert at the zoo.
“With so little known about tree kangaroos, Kitawa’s joey is a particularly special arrival, and represents a major step forward in understanding and protecting this remarkable species.”
“Being able to carefully track this joey’s development inside the pouch using tiny cameras wasn’t possible only a few years ago, and it’s already helped us learn more crucial information about the early stages of life inside the pouch—knowledge that can now support, and hopefully speed up, our conservation breeding efforts globally.”
The zoo further captured the first few months of the joey, which now weighs 4 pounds (1.85kg), using tiny endoscopic cameras, offering a rare and fascinating insight into the species.
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It’s just the second time experts have bred the species at the Chester Zoo, with only two zoos in the UK currently caring for the rare animals.
Scientists helped pinpoint the best time for the two kangaroos to be paired by using hormone monitoring, carried out in the zoo’s on-site science laboratory,
the only facility of its kind at a zoo in Europe.
“Every birth like this is incredibly important,” said David White, team manager at Chester Zoo. “It’s been a real team effort. Everything we’ve learned so far will help conservationists around the world.”
What Makes Tree Kangaroos Special
Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus goodfellowi) is native to the forests of Papua New Guinea, an island nation north of Australia
Unlike many other kangaroo species, they are mostly solitary animals, spending much of their time resting or sleeping in trees for up to 16 hours a day—but they often sleep head-down, a position that helps rain run off their fur.
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Their joeys weigh just 2–3 grams at birth (about the size of a jellybean). The
newborns make a remarkable climb from the mother’s belly into the pouch shortly after birth—and remain there, suckling and developing, for around seven months before venturing out.
Forest loss and degradation caused by human activity, and a slow reproduction rate, makes populations particularly vulnerable to decline.
Only around 20-25 zoos are caring for or breeding Goodfellow’s tree kangaroos worldwide, usually a single pair, to maintain genetic diversity in a global effort to help the adorable species endure.
“We don’t have a name for the little one just yet, but our choice will be influenced by communities in Papua New Guinea who live alongside tree kangaroos and are now part of efforts to protect their forest homes.”
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