Keepers were astonished recently to find an albino Bennett’s wallaby peering out of her mum’s pouch. It is not un-common for albinos to be born in captivity and they have been born at Marwell in the past. However, albino wallabies in the wild are rare with as few as one in 10,000.

The albino was born to regular grey-brown coloured parents and is the first wallaby to be born this year. Ten more joeys with regular grey-brown colouring can also be seen looking out from their mum’s pouches.  

Wallabies are simply small kangaroos. The Bennett’s wallaby is the Tasmanian subspecies of the red-necked wallaby of southern and eastern Australia. They live in shrub and brushwood as well as open county, and also live on Tasmania. They like to eat grasses, leaves and herbs.

They are usually solitary animals, staying together only for the duration of mating. Gestation is usually 30 days, but when environmental conditions are unfavourable, or if the female already has a baby in her pouch, this can be delayed – the development of the embryo is halted until the conditions improve. When the baby is born, usually during the rainy season, it closely resembles a baked bean in size and shape. This tiny, barely formed creature, unable to see or hear, hauls itself up its mother’s belly, hanging on by its front legs (its back legs are less developed) and makes its way into the pouch. Once inside, it attaches to one of the four teats and remains there for nearly seven months, venturing out occasionally as it gets bigger. Even after leaving the pouch for the last time, the young wallaby may continue to suckle.

You need to hop to it to see the albino joey as the young wallaby will be moving to another collection when old enough to survive without Mum.

8th May 2008

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