A kangaroo rat was born for the first time at the Prague Zoo – Tojesenzace.cz
The first baby kangaroo in history was born at the Prague Zoo. although the tiny marsupial only peeked out of its mother’s pouch last week, visitors can already see it exploring its exhibit in Darwin Crater at the bottom of the zoo.
“We are all the more delighted with the addition as it is the first ever rat kangaroo born in our zoo,” Miroslav Bobek, director of the Prague Zoo, is happy about the cub. According to him, the new inhabitant of the garden is important on an international scale.
The rat kangaroo has been listed on the IUCN Red List in the “near threatened” category since 2014, and its situation is improving. In its homeland in eastern Australia, it is threatened by invasive species and increasingly by fires. “If the current trend continues, its population may drop by almost a third in some places in the next 12 years. Every breeding success like this gives us the hope we need for future years,” says Filip Mašek, spokesman for the Prague Zoo.
The tiny “rat” at the Prague Zoo, as this second breeder is nicknamed, is doing excellently. “Unlike large kangaroos, the birthing areas first observe the surroundings from the safety of their mother’s pouch, the kangaroos, on the other hand, are completely hidden in the pouch for a long time and then one day they immediately start exploring the surroundings,” explains breeder David Vala, adding that even the kangaroos regularly return to the bag for some time.
The little kangaroo was born to a five-year-old female who came to Prague from the Polish Opole Zoo, and to a two-and-a-half-year-old male originally from the Jihlava Zoo. Rat kangaroos are so-called food specialists – up to 80 percent of their diet consists of mushrooms, which, however, the young have not tasted yet. In the coming weeks, he will continue to live on his mother’s milk, before gradually transitioning to adult solid food.
People can observe the small rat kangaroo in the Darwin Crater indoor exhibit in the lower part of the zoo. The rat kangaroo is nicknamed “rat girl” by breeders. Currently you can visit him, they can see, increasingly longer expeditions from his mother’s bag and he explores the surroundings. Kangaroos are marsupials – just like their larger relatives. The cub will return to the safety of its mother’s pouch for at least a few more weeks.
Source and photo: Prague Zoo, Petr Hamerník