Zoo keepers in Adelaide, Australia, saved the life of an orphaned tree kangaroo by using a surrogate wallaby mother, in what the zoo says is a world first.
The joey, known as Makaia, was left orphaned at just five weeks when zoo keepers discovered that a fallen tree branch had killed his mother. As Makaia was too young to be hand-reared, the Adelaide Zoo staff decided to try to “cross-foster” the little kangaroo, placing the joey into the pouch of a surrogate wallaby mother.
While cross-fostering has been successfully done before, Adelaide Zoo veterinarian David McLelland said that this was the first attempt with a tree kangaroo. “Not only are tree kangaroos distant relatives of wallabies, they also have many behavioural and physical differences,” McLelland said in a press release on the Adelaide Zoo website. “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.”
More Must-Reads from TIME
- The Reinvention of J.D. Vance
- Iran, Trump, and the Third Assassination Plot
- Welcome to the Golden Age of Scams
- Did the Pandemic Break Our Brains?
- 33 True Crime Documentaries That Shaped the Genre
- The Ordained Rabbi Who Bought a Porn Company
- Introducing the Democracy Defenders
- Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women
Contact us at letters@time.com