Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. Temperatures around the state have been really mild this week. We will take it, we’re open all year round and have two encounter tours that run daily at 11am and 1pm. It’s nice though, the warmer temperatures mean that we don’t have to succumb to cabin fever and can really enjoy the beauty of winter. Another thing you can almost always enjoy around Timbavati Wildlife Park is a baby kangaroo.

We have a pretty large mob of roos because of that there’s always a baby roo or two hopping around. When a baby is born they’re less than 2 cm in length and weighs less than a gram. Now most people know that when the baby is born is crawls up it’s mother’s belly and settles in her pouch. However, we rarely discuss how mom handles the Joey in the pouch. For instance, did you know that the mother has muscles in her pouch that allow her to tighten it up?

Baby Kangaroo = Agility

That’s right a mother kangaroo can tighten the muscles around her pouch up and create a secure environment for the joey while she is hopping around. It’s crazy because a joey can hop and jump in mom’s pouch head first at full speed. Then in a matter of second flip around and poke its head out of the pouch, that’s impressive for any animal.

What goes on with joeys become even more fascinating when you dig a little bit deeper. A mother kangaroo has different milk compositions based upon the age of the baby kangaroo. Small joeys get high protein immunity rich milk. Older joeys have higher protein and high carb milk with some fat and Joey’s at foot have high fat and protein milk.

At Timbavati Wildlife Park we have no shortage of animal facts. When you see our staff feel free to ask any questions you have. It’s a way of life for us and we love talking about the animals to visitors. The more people learn about them the better we can all respect and care for our animal friends. Check Ashley out in this week’s video as she talks to a guest on an Encounter Tour about more really cool baby kangaroo facts. We will talk with you all next week!

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