CHESTER, England (CU)_The dusky pademelon, also referred to as the dusky wallaby, is a rare mammal that looks like a miniature kangaroo, but you won’t see them in Australia. They are a species of marsupial, meaning they carry their young in a pouch, and are native to forests of the island of New Guinea. Over the last 15 to 20 years, the dusky pademelon population is estimated to have declined by 30 per cent, largely due to the hunting of its meat. This is why it was a “magical moment” for the zookeepers at Chester Zoo to have witnessed a baby wallaby emerged from its mother’s pouch for the first time this week.
The marsupial grew inside the pouch for six months before it emerged in just the size of a jelly bean when it was born. Seeing the joey take its first peek at the world brought them “a huge amount of joy”, according to Zookeeper Megan Carpenter. “When a dusky pademelon joey is first born it’s only about the size of a jelly bean and so it stays in the safety of mum’s pouch, where it receives all of the nourishment it needs to grow and develop, for around six months,” she said, adding that it would be a few weeks until the new baby fully emerges and starts hopping around. “That’s when we’ll be able to determine if it’s male or female and give it a fitting name.”
While the dusky pademelon shares a close likeness to the kangaroo, this species only grows to be around 2ft tall. Their infants are just 30 days after a successful mating and stay inside the mother’s pouch, growing and developing, for almost six months. According to Carpenter, it was when the zookeepers noticed mum Styx slowly gaining weight that they began to monitor her behaviour and feeding patterns more closely, hoping that she was rearing a baby. “Seeing the magical moment her new arrival took its first peek out of the pouch has brought us a huge amount of joy!” she said.
