--- title: Orphaned Tree Kangaroo Successfully Raised By Surrogate Wallaby Mother description: "If we wanted to save the joey we had to try our luck," the zoo veterinarian said canonical: https://time.com/3941297/tree-kangaroo-wallaby-surrogate-mother/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-30T13:16:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:21:38.001Z og:title: Orphaned Tree Kangaroo Raised by a Surrogate Wallaby Mother og:description: "If we wanted to save the joey we had to try our luck," the zoo veterinarian said og:url: https://time.com/3941297/tree-kangaroo-wallaby-surrogate-mother/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt637dee2415e5588d/6988591335ba6fa075c0e00f/adelaide-zoo-tree-kangaroo.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Adelaide-Zoo-Tree-Kangaroo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Orphaned Tree Kangaroo Raised by a Surrogate Wallaby Mother twitter:description: "If we wanted to save the joey we had to try our luck," the zoo veterinarian said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt637dee2415e5588d/6988591335ba6fa075c0e00f/adelaide-zoo-tree-kangaroo.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Orphaned Tree Kangaroo Was Raised by a Surrogate Wallaby Mother by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 30, 2015 1:16 PM UTC  Adelaide Zoo by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 30, 2015 1:16 PM UTC 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](http://www.adelaidezoo.com.au/orphaned-tree-kangaroo-saved-in-world-first/). “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.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3941297/tree-kangaroo-wallaby-surrogate-mother/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3941297/tree-kangaroo-wallaby-surrogate-mother/"},"headline":"This Orphaned Tree Kangaroo Was Raised by a Surrogate Wallaby Mother","datePublished":"2015-06-30T13:16:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:38.001Z","description":"\"If we wanted to save the joey we had to try our luck\"","url":"https://time.com/3941297/tree-kangaroo-wallaby-surrogate-mother/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt637dee2415e5588d/6988591335ba6fa075c0e00f/adelaide-zoo-tree-kangaroo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt637dee2415e5588d/6988591335ba6fa075c0e00f/adelaide-zoo-tree-kangaroo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Adelaide-Zoo-Tree-Kangaroo","caption":"Adelaide-Zoo-Tree-Kangaroo","creditText":"Adelaide Zoo","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3941297/tree-kangaroo-wallaby-surrogate-mother/","name":"This Orphaned Tree Kangaroo Was Raised by a Surrogate Wallaby Mother"}}]}] ```