Healesville Sanctuary introduces baby tree-kangaroo Chimbu
If you need a vibe boost, six-month-old Chimbu is coming to the rescue. This sweet boy has just emerged from his mum’s pouch at Healesville Sanctuary and he’s the bees knees.
Outer East
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He’s only six months old but little Chimbu is already breaking hearts.
The gorgeous goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo has only just emerged out of his mumma’s pouch but the furry little guy is cautiously inquisitive about his bushy surroundings at Healesville Sanctuary.
Chimu is named after an area in Papua New Guinea where his wild cousins live and he is part of a special international breeding program to boost numbers of the tree-kangaroos which are threatened by habitat loss and hunting.
Keeper Katherine Sarris said Chimu would stay in his mum Mani’s pouch for the next 10 months but will need milk for about a year.
“When he’s too big to fit all the way back in the pouch, he’ll just stick his head in so he can get milk,” Ms Sarris said.
“When he gets out of the pouch he likes to investigate his environment, but he won’t go too far from Mum at this point.”
Ms Sarris said Chimbu was inquisitive, if a little cautious and whenever his mum is eating something he’ll try to sneak a bite of it.
“As the name suggests, tree-kangaroos climb and live in trees,” she said.
“Their long forearms and powerful claws are well adapted to clinging and jumping among tree branches, and their strong tails are used for balancing.”
Ms Sarris said the tree-kangaroos were found in the rugged central mountain ranges of Papua New Guinea and Healesville Sanctuary ran a captive breeding program as part of a regional species management program.
And while there are no data on wild numbers of the species, it is thought that fewer than 2000 remain, she said.
“Zoos Victoria is part of an international breeding program … Mani came to us from Canberra, and she was paired up with Bagam, who came from Germany,” she said.
“These two individuals, who are as unrelated as possible, were paired up to produce joeys for the program.”
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She said Zoos Victoria was part of a conservation partnership with the Tree-Kangaroo Conservation Program in northeast Papua New Guinea, which was conserving the closely-related matschie’s tree-kangaroo and many other species.
The program is embedded in the local community, supporting a sustainable future for the people living in the program’s more than 50 villages, she said.