Santa Barbara Zoo welcomes birth of first baby wallaby to Australian Walkabout
May 26—The Santa Barbara Zoo recently welcomed the birth of its first wallaby, born to first-time mother Kalina, whose name was chosen through a public naming contest earlier this year.
"We are very excited about the arrival of our first wallaby joey, and we're now seeing it start to pop its head out of the pouch," Dr. Julie Barnes, vice president of Animal Care & Health, said last week.
After a short gestation period of approximately one month, Bennett's wallabies are born looking embryonic and weighing barely 1 ounce, hairless and underdeveloped. However, they have strong enough forelimbs to climb up and into their mother's pouch. The single newborn will latch onto and feed from the mother and continue to develop.
The wallabies are carried in their mother's pouch for eight to nine months as they continue to grow and develop.
Around month five or six, joeys typically begin to explore life outside their mother's pouch.
"You might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the joey's head or legs hanging out of Kalina's pouch and if you look closely at her pouch, you will notice a lot of movement as the joey is now very active inside there," Barnes said of the nearly 5-month-old joey.
"It will still be a while before the joey is ready to come all the way out of the pouch and spend time exploring the habitat with Kalina, and it will continue to hop in and out of the pouch until it is about 1 year old."
The Bennett's wallaby is a medium-sized marsupial — weighing on average between 30 and 40 pounds and standing about 3 feet tall as adults — found along the eastern coast of Australia and on the island of Tasmania. Their native habitat ranges from eucalyptus forests to open areas adjacent to forests.
The zoo's Australian Walkabout exhibit opened in January.
Visit the Australian Walkabout
The Santa Barbara Zoo's new Australian Walkabout opened in January and features a 15,000-square-foot habitat designed to transport guests Down Under, where they can walk among the wallabies, kangaroos, emus and see native birds to develop a deeper understanding of and connection to wildlife conservation.
Access to the Australian Walkabout is free with zoo admission, and no additional reservations are required.
Online tickets purchased in advance are required for all guests, including Santa Barbara Zoo members (member tickets are free of charge), and can be made at reservations.sbzoo.org/Info.aspx?EventID=3.
The public can also help support the new baby wallaby by becoming a Foster Feeder. A donation of $50 or more helps with the cost of feeding the growing wallaby family.
For more information or to become a Foster Feeder, visit sbzoo.pivvit.com/bennetts-wallaby.
Lisa André covers lifestyle and local news for Santa Ynez Valley News and Lompoc Record, editions of the Santa Maria Times.
