Baby wallaby missing from Michigan zoo days after leaving mom’s pouch. ‘Heartbroken’
.png "The young wallaby had just begun to venture out of its mother’s pouch, the Detroit Zoo said.")
Update: The Detroit Zoo believes the baby wallaby was taken by an “aerial predator” that lives near the zoo, such as an owl or hawk, the zoo said in a Facebook comment on May 9. The original story is below.
A new “bundle of joy” at a Michigan zoo has tragically gone missing, the zoo announced.
The Detroit Zoo proudly shared on May 6 that their 4-year-old wallaby Sprocket had given birth to her first child, called a joey.
At the time of the announcement, the new member of the zoo was just 5 months old and had yet to be named. The joey had just begun to venture out of its mother’s pouch “for seconds at a time,” the zoo said.
But two days later, the Detroit Zoo had a sad announcement — the baby wallaby was missing.
“We are heartbroken to update you that the 5-month-old wallaby joey whose story we shared on Friday is missing,” the zoo said in a statement. “The joey was last seen by animal care staff around 5 p.m. Saturday and was discovered missing from the Australian Outback Adventure habitat early this morning.”
Staff began searching for the joey and checking nearby surveillance cameras.
The zoo shared that since the joey is so young and not yet independent, it’s unlikely it could survive for “an extended amount of time away from the mother.”
Still, staff are hopeful that the joey will be found unharmed.
This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 12:19 PM with the headline "Baby wallaby missing from Michigan zoo days after leaving mom’s pouch. ‘Heartbroken’."
