The Secret is OUT! Mill Mountain Zoo Welcomes a Baby Wallaby – A Joey!

Mill Mountain Zoo is home to three adult Bennett’s Wallabies, and now… A JOEY! The wallabies arrived at the zoo back in April of this year, and one of them came with a surprise. After 7 months of developing in the mom’s pouch, the joey has begun venturing out of the pouch to explore its surroundings and he is healthy and thriving. Visit Roanoke’s Zoo for an opportunity to get a glimpse of a baby Wallaby and momma Wallaby, Bova.

While they might look like their larger marsupial cousins (the kangaroos) wallabies are much smaller. This species measures around 3 feet tall and only weighs between 30 and 40 pounds. Not only do they differ in size, but also in color; kangaroos have a muted coat color, while wallabies have several colors mixed together.

Bennett’s Wallabies are marsupials, which means their young develop inside of a pouch. The young are born after just 29 days, at which point they are completely hairless, still resemble an embryo, and are about the size of a jellybean. Once they are born, they crawl their way into the mother’s pouch, where they will spend the next 9 months developing. After they have fully developed, the joey will stay with its mother for 3-9 more months and continue to nurse from the mother's pouch.

Also called Red-necked Wallabies, Bennet’s Wallabies are native to the eastern coast of Australia and the island of Tasmania. They live in temperate forests and shrubland habitats, they feed on a variety of different plants including grasses, herbs, and leaves. During dry spells, they obtain a lot of their water from this vegetation and their roots. While they are listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN, they still face threats in the wild. In Tasmania, this species is considered a pest species and is often hunted because they compete with livestock for grazing opportunities. Historically, they were trapped and hunted for their furs.