The adorable Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo from Adelaide Zoo in Australia first made headlines in 2014 when he was adopted by a surrogate yellow-footed wallaby at 47 days, after his mother suddenly passed away. When he grew too big for the wallaby’s pouch, he was cared for by a keeper. Makaia, whose name means ‘magic’ in Tok Pisin, a local Papua New Guinea language, subsequently landed in Singapore on July 4.
Today, Makaia went through his health check, and although the quarantine test report will only be ready in three weeks, initial results show he’s healthy and in good shape. That’s great news, ’cause his species is increasingly threatened in the wild, due to unsustainable hunting and deforestation. Over the past 50 years, the population numbers of Goodfellow’s tree kangaroos have decreased by almost half.
At the Singapore Zoo, Makaia will be partnered with Nupela, a female who arrived in June from Sydney’s Taronga Zoo. You’ll soon be able to watch the pair at their air-conditioned exhibit here in the zoo’s new Australasian Zone in early August.
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