Peek a boo baby
You may have heard the jokes about elephants in trees. They do not exist, not even in New York. However, there are kangaroos that live in trees. Hopping may be a challenge, but in New Guinea the Macropods hang out and do Kangaroo and Lemur like stuff. The Bronx Zoo in NYC is proudly bragging about their tree kangaroos and their new baby. The birth of the Matschie’s tree kangaroo joey, “is an exciting birth for the Bronx Zoo and a unique opportunity for people to observe one of nature’s most intriguing evolutionary adaptations.” The Matschie’s tree kangaroo is native to Papua New Guinea, lives in mountain rainforests and is listed as endangered. The species is much smaller than Australia’s well-known red kangaroo. An adult male Matschie’s tree kangaroo weighs between 20 and 25 lb. The joey is about the size of a human thumbnail at birth, zoo officials said. The tiny joey crawls through the mother’s fur to enter her pouch and emerges. “At this stage of development, the joey will spend a lot of time in his mom’s pouch with just its head sticking out. As it matures it will begin to explore its environment and start spending short periods of time outside the pouch.”
Conservationists believe that fewer than 2,500 Matschie’s tree kangaroos remain in the wild. They are threatened by habitat destruction, hunting and other human activities. Many of the 13 other tree kangaroo species are incredibly rare and most are decreasing in number. Macropods were once all tree dwellers but millions of years ago they descended from the trees to live on the ground. The ancestors of tree kangaroos eventually headed back up into the foliage and they are now the largest tree-dwelling mammals in Australia. Tree kangaroos live in lowland and mountainous rainforests in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the far north of Queensland, Australia. They have adapted to life in the trees, with shorter legs and stronger forelimbs for climbing, giving them somewhat of the appearance of a cross between a kangaroo and a lemur.
Bouncy Kangaroo humor
What animal jumps when it walks and sits when it stands?
A kangaroo.
What do you call a prison full of kangaroos?
Australia.
Why do kangaroo moms hate rainy days?
Because their children play inside.
A Texas farmer goes to Australia for a vacation and while he’s there he meets an Aussie farmer. They get talking and the Aussie farmer shows off his big wheat field. The Texan is unimpressed and says, “We have wheat fields that are twice as large as that.” They walk around the ranch a little more, and then the Aussie shows off his herd of cattle. The Texan is again unimpressed and says, “We have longhorns that are at least twice as large as your cows.” The Texan sees a group of kangaroos hopping through the field. He asks, “And what are those?” The Aussie replies, “Don’t you have any grasshoppers in Texas?”
May 5th Birthdays
1999 – Chelsea Clark, 1988 – Adele, 1978 – Jessie Cave, 1991 – Danielle Fishel
1983 – Henry Cavill, 1989 – Chris Brown, 1999 – John Gray, 2001 – Kalama Epstein