The Prague Zoo has raised the first baby rat kangaroo, after milk it will switch to mushrooms
A baby rat kangaroo was born in the Prague Zoo.
| photo: Prague Zoo/Petr Hamerník
According to the director of the zoo, Miroslav Bobek, 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 Prague Zoo spokesman Filip Mašek.
However, the tiny “rat” is doing great. “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 vacuum for a long time and then one day they immediately start exploring the surroundings,” explains breeder David Vala, adding that the kangaroos then also enter the pouch returns regularly for some time.
The cub 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 food specialists, up to 80 percent of their diet consists of mushrooms. However, the cub has not tasted them yet. In the coming weeks, he will continue to live on his mother’s milk, before gradually transitioning to adult solid food.
The rat kangaroo got its name because it really resembles a large rat. It does not have as long back legs as large kangaroos and grows to a length of only around 35 centimeters. Its elongated snout is also typical. The Prague Zoo has been breeding it since 2020, when it imported a breeding pair from the Jihavá Zoo to its newly opened exhibition of Australian and Tasmanian fauna and flora, Darwin’s Crater.