Discovering our new joey

There’s a little newcomer we’re yet to meet, currently residing in the pouch of female kangaroo Ronja. The joey, whose sex we don’t yet know, was born in August 2022 and is now poking its little nose out of the pouch more and more regularly.

Kangaroos are born after a short gestation period of about 33 days. Newborn kangaroos are completely bald, are only 2.5 cm tall, and weigh just 0.8 g. They clamber independently from the birth canal into the pouch and attach themselves to a teat. They take their first peek at the world after about 5 to 6 months.

Ronja’s offspring came to us as an unnoticed “souvenir” from her former home, Opel Zoo. Along with three other females and two independent youngsters, Ronja moved into the newly opened enclosure for red kangaroos in September 2022.