The Cincinnati Zoo had a sweet surprise visit from a baby wallaby this weekend.
The joey, who had been visibly moving around in its marsupial mom Ava's pouch, popped its hairless pink head out to say hello.
“We’re so excited to finally meet our new wallaby joey,” said Christina Gorsuch, Cincinnati Zoo’s curator of mammals, in a release. “We’ve seen it squirming and kicking around in Ava’s pouch for weeks, but she’s had her pouch stubbornly closed up tight. After finally seeing the joey’s naked little face, we now know why!”
According to the zoo release, these pouched pinkies are born "underdeveloped and then crawl into their mother’s pouch and continue to develop for several months" before they peek their tiny faces out.
"It will probably be at least another month before the little one has fur and is ready to hop around on its own," says the zoo.
The joey makes its appearance just in time for the Zoo Babies exhibit (that we can't currently experience in person but know for sure is super cute based on the park's social media posts).
The marsupials are new members of the zoo family and will be part of Roo Valley, an Australian-themed walkabout set to open sometime this year. You'll be able to wander through a themed, open area where kangaroos and wallabies will roam free.
