He made his first outing from his mother's pocket.

Keepers at a British zoo have been lucky enough to discover a specimen of a rare species of tree kangaroo.

Smaller than the Australian kangaroo, Goodfellow's dendrolague is a marsupial native to the rainforests of Papua New Guinea.

Victim of hunting and the destruction of its natural habitat, it has seen its population decrease by more than half in thirty years.

The team at Chester Zoo (England) was able to follow the growth of the newborn thanks to a special endoscope, placed in the pocket of his mother several weeks apart since his birth last July, explained Thursday Dave White , team leader at the animal park.



A poorly known species

“Having custody of these endangered specimens allows us to learn so much about them and the information we gather helps protect them in the wild,” he said.

Chester Zoo carries out research intended to protect the survival of the species in the wild.

Wearing a short and woolly coat, brown on the back, white or beige on the belly, this animal with a broad head and round ears like those of a bear lives in the tops of trees.

Little is known about the development of these marsupials.

By filming them, the keepers hope to better document their practices to better protect them and help other similar species in Southeast Asia to continue to live in the wild.

A complex birth process

According to Dave White, these animals have the “most complex birth process in the animal kingdom”: the young are born totally undeveloped and instinctively follow a path along the fur, licked by the mother, leading to the pouch.

Once it is installed there, it will cling to a pacifier there to grow gradually, for after six months "start to open its eyes and stick its head out", he explained.



In the days and weeks to come, the new arrival, who has yet to be baptized but would be a male, should come entirely out of his mother's pouch to start learning to jump and climb trees.

Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo is one of 14 species of tree-kangaroo.

The others live in Indonesia, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

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