World-first surrogacy between a wallaby and a kangaroo occurred after the tree kangaroo’s mother was killed by a falling branch

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

An orphaned tree kangaroo has been raised by a surrogate wallaby mother at Adelaide zoo, in what vets say is a world first.

The cross–species surrogacy between a wallaby and a kangaroo has never been attempted before but was forced on the zoo when the the tree kangaroo’s mother was killed by a falling branch.

“We had no idea if the yellow-footed rock-wallaby would accept the tree kangaroo joey, but if we wanted to save the joey we had to try our luck,” veterinarian David McLelland said.

The tree kangaroo was orphaned in November and was too young to be reared by hand.

The zoo had previously reared wallabies using surrogate mothers from other wallaby species, but had never used the technique to have a wallaby mother raise a joey tree kangaroo.

The cross-foster procedure, to get the tree kangaroo joey to latch on to the new teat, ran smoothly and tiny ripples of movement over the next few days confirmed the joey was alive and thriving.

“We were so excited when we confirmed the joey had made it past the first critical 24-hour period,” zoo natives team leader Gayl Males said.

“This joey was completely different from other joeys in body shape and behaviour. It certainly wriggled around more than a wallaby joey.”

The orphan, named Makaia, first popped its head out of the pouch around the end of January.

It stayed with its surrogate mother for about three months and is now being hand-reared.

