This cuddly animal looks just like a fluffy stuffed toy. The face, ears and short front legs may remind you of a kangaroo, but why is a kangaroo sitting in a tree?
That is because it is a tree-kangaroo! It is a tree-dwelling marsupial native to New Guinea, Queensland and the surrounding islands of Australia. It is much smaller than its cousins and is usually less than one meter tall and weighs under 10 kilograms.
The tree-kangaroo is a master of living in tree canopies. It's strong paws and long tail help it cling to the tree and keep perfect balance. It also excels at "skydiving." A tree-kangaroo can leap down from several meters without getting hurt.
Like all marsupials, tree-kangaroo babies grow up in their mother's pouches and enjoy the longest pouch period of up to nine months. Check out the gallery below for a super cute baby tree-kangaroo born in October 2018 in Miami!
A rare tree kangaroo, this baby kangaroos or joe, peeks out of his mother's pouch seven months after being born the size of a jelly bean. Excited zookeepers photographed the endangered Matchie tree kangaroo for the first time since its birth at Zoo Miami, U.S. in October 2019. /VCG Photo
Matchie's tree kangaroos live at high altitudes in the Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea. The solitary marsupials spend most of their time up in trees feeding on a variety of leaves, fern, moss and bark. /VCG Photo
The baby kangaroo and his mom, Zayna. The joey is Zayna's third baby and won't be totally weaned until it is a year-old./VCG Photo
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has determined that almost all of the 14 species of tree-kangaroos and under threat of extinction, with three of them classified as "critically endangered." The two most significant threats to tree-kangaroos are habitat loss and hunting. Human activities expose the defenseless animal to predators, and sometimes humans are the predator.
(Cover image via VCG)
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