Joey born at Taronga Zoo without a male
It sounds like the plot of a soap opera, but more than a year after the last male roo left Taronga Zoo, a mother has given birth to a joey. The newborn came as a huge surprise to keepers, who weren’t planning for another joey given that mother Mica had given birth to one just eight months previously.
So, who’s the father of the miracle baby? As it turns out, the same male roo who fathered the last joey. Tony Britt-Lewis of Taronga Zoo explains the surprise birth is due to “embryonic dispause”. “It’s an interesting survival mechanism that allows the mother to delay the development of the embryo in drought conditions or if she already has a joey in the pouch,” Britt-Lewis told Australian Geographic.
Since her pouch was already home to one joey, the remaining embryo remained dormant until Mica gave birth. The new joey, whose sex has not yet been determined, is estimated to be around six-months old and has already been delighting zoo visitors.
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