Animal Adventure Park Introduces Extremely Rare Baby Kangaroo
There's nothing quite like becoming a parent. Do you remember that moment where you realized your child had a certain trait that made them that much more special?
The staff at the Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, near Binghamton, are experiencing that same feeling after discovering something pretty special from their latest inspection on their kangaroos.
A joey has been developing inside his mom's pouch at the park for several months now, and it was time for the staff to do their first check-up of the joey to make sure it is healthy. According to the Animal Adventure Park, Red kangaroos are born the size very small (typically the size of your thumb nail.) They do much of their development in mom's pouch, outside of the womb.
At the age of approximately 4-5 months, the team does their first full "pull", removing baby from mom's pouch for a full inspection and medical review, and then return the joey to mom's pouch for her to raise.
What they discovered was far from their imagination, and they took to their Facebook page to make everyone aware of the exciting news.
"Today's inspection revealed an EXTREMELY RARE, what we are currently considering, Leucistic male joey." Yes, meaning a white kangaroo!
What exactly is Leucistic? It's the lack of color pigmentation, resulting in a white coat. What makes him leucistic and not albino? There is black color pigmentation in the eyes, therefore not your normally anticipated red-eyed albino mutation.
Animal Adventure Park goes on in their post to say that they are unaware of any other leucistic kangaroos anywhere else in the United States, which makes their discovery that much more exciting.
What's next? Staff members say that they are working with members of the zoological community to ensure they are doing everything that they need to in terms of caring for the joey.
For now, he's growing a bit more in his mom's pouch. We'll find out more details about him as time progresses.
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