初めての顔出し、キノボリカンガルーの赤ちゃん　英動物園

【ロンドンＡＦＰ＝時事】英イングランドのチェスター動物園でこのほど、昨年７月に生まれた絶滅危惧種のセスジキノボリカンガルーの赤ちゃんが、初めて母親の袋から頭を出したところが撮影された。（写真は、同動物園で母親の袋から顔を出したセスジキノボリカンガルーの赤ちゃん）
　セスジキノボリカンガルーはパプアニューギニアの熱帯雨林の山間部に生息し、木の上で生活する。一般的に知られるオーストラリアのカンガルーよりもずっと小型だ。
　密猟や生息地の破壊によって、過去３０年間で個体数は半分以下に減少した。
　生まれたばかりのキノボリカンガルーはゼリービーンズほどの大きさで、極めて未熟な状態。母親の袋に入ってから後脚や毛が発達し、「６か月ほどで目が開き、袋から顔を出すようになる」という。
　飼育員らは、数週間ごとに母親の袋に特製の内視鏡を慎重に差し込み、赤ちゃんの成長を記録してきた。
　チェスター動物園の赤ちゃんは、数日または数週間のうちに袋から出て、はねたり木登りをしたりできるようになるという。
　名前はまだないが、雄だとみられる。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/01/30-14:56）

Conservationists at a UK zoo have captured the moment a rare tree kangaroo popped out of its mother's pouch for the first time, part of research aimed at helping the endangered species survive in the wild.
The elusive Goodfellow's tree kangaroo is much smaller than the better known Australian kangaroo species. It is native to the mountainous rainforests of Papua New Guinea, where they are under threat from hunting and habitat destruction.
The species lives high up in trees and has lost more than half its population in the past 30 years.
Dave White, team manager of Chester Zoo in northwestern England, said they had documented the marsupial's growth using a special endoscope carefully placed into the mother's pouch every few weeks since it was born last July.
By having these endangered species in our care we can learn so much about them and this sort of information that we are gathering is a small part preserving them in the wild, he told AFP.
Since little is known about their development, scientists hope capturing the process on camera will improve conservation practices and help other similar species in southeast Asia survive in the wild.
Tree kangaroos have one of the most complex birthing processes in the animal kingdom, said White. It involves the youngster being born incredibly underdeveloped and instinctively following a path of fur, which has been licked by the mother, that leads to the pouch.
Once inside the pouch, the young kangaroo latches on to teats for nutrition. Then, slowly, it grows from the size of a jellybean, developing back legs and fur, until around six months later it starts to open its eyes and pop its head out, he said.
Over the coming days and weeks, Chester's new baby kangaroo, is expected to fully emerge from its mother's pouch and begin learning to hop and climb trees, White added. It is not yet named, but thought to be male.
The Goodfellow tree kangaroo is one of 14 species of tree kangaroo. The others are found in the lowland and mountainous forests of Indonesia, the far north of Queensland, Australia and also in Papua New Guinea.