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KANGAROO ON THE GOLD COAST

"Fir0002/Flagstaffotos" Female Grey Kangaroo with joey. To Make A Pouch For A Hairless Joey. Take a plastic shopping bag and fill it with 000 steel wool teased out. Make a well in the center and place another plastic shopping bag inside. place a small hot water bottle - filled with warm water at the base of the bag. Line this bag with a cotton tea towel dampened with chlorine free warm water. Place the joey in the warm damp tea towel, immediately close all the bags to trap the heat and hang in a warm place.	The word Kangaroo derives from the Guugu Yimidhirr word gangurru, referring to a Grey Kangaroo [big foot]. There are many different varieties of this marsupial macroppus genus to be found in Australia. In general the term Kangaroo depicts the larger species such as the "Red Kangaroo", "Western Grey Kangaroo" and the "Eastern Grey Kangaroo". The smaller species are commonly referred to as "Wallabies, tree-kangaroos, Quokka and pademelons. Actually sighting an Eastern Grey Kangaroo on the Gold Coast is a rare event , unless you visit a theme park like Currumbin Sanctuary. You are much more likely to see a Wallaby if you travel to the Hinterland. Your highest probability of spotting a Grey Kangaroo in the wild is at dawn, feeding on the side of the road or in a grassy paddock somewhere off the beaten track. Kangaroos are not rare or an endangered species in Australia. They just don't hop along main street - as some tourists expect. One of the most remarkable adaptations of this marsupial is that the female can hold off the development of a fertilized egg until the previous Joey has left the pouch and conditions are conducive to successful rearing of the young. For instance - if there is a drought and therefore a lack of feed, a female may hold up the development of a fertilized egg for two years. Joeys are susceptible to a bacterial infection in the intestines, this is the cause of the greatest fatalities in young kangaroos. When hand raising Joeys there is an old bushmans formula that seems to curb this infection and I have raised many joeys using this formula - even hairless Joeys. To make this formula you need some Eucylypt charcoal and some strongly brewed black tea. Carefully sterilize all utensils, bottles and teats by boiling. Mix: 3oz black tea 5oz cows milk 1teaspoon finely crushed charcoal. Feed the Joey as much as it wants every 2 hours right around the clock, until it starts to forage grass. Then feed every 2 hours through the day and every four hours at night. Make sure to keep the Joey warm at all times, simulate the conditions of the Kangaroos pouch as closely as you can. Tiny hairless Joeys need a lot of humidity in the artificial pouch to survive.
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Joey (baby kangaroo) in its mother's pouch. Photograph by Geoff Shaw.