Tree Kangaroo Baby Joey Prepares for Pouch Exit

That’s right a tree kangaroo! Wow look at the pouch on that Moma! That looks like the most warm and comfortable babywear ever designed. If I was a baby kangaroo (known as a joey) I would never want to grow up and step out of there. I wish I could get a large-sized one of those pouches to take on a camping trip. But you know how little joeys are, they can’t wait to get out and jump and climb all over everything the first chance they get. The joey featured in the video here, named Rocket, was born in January so he is nearing that age when big tree kangaroo joeys are ready to come out of the mother’s pouch – at about 10 months. He looks a bit like a puppy with just his front paws sticking out but once his hind legs are on display there will be no doubt what kind of marsupial he is. The mother treeroos can give birth once a year, so that means they may only have a joey-free pouch for a few short months each year but the newborns are tiny little creatures when they first move in. Outside of zoos you will only encounter this bounding tree-lover in the tropical rainforests in the far Northeastern part of Australia, on the island of New Guinea, and on a few other islands scattered around that part of the Pacific. They enjoy jumping from tree to tree and are not quite at home on the ground. Habitat loss is an issue for the species.