Melbourne Zoo July 2009

This is a photo of the tree kangaroo exhibit at Melbourne Zoo. It is in an area with a mismatched collection of small mammals and birds and is right opposite the infamous baboon exhibit. Other species in this area are meerkats, quokka, baboons, red pandas, red-tailed black cockatoos, little penguins, emporer tamarins and golden lion tamarins. "This part of the zoo is like a box of chocolate...You never know what your gonna get."

melbourne zoo has another breeding pair they keep off display. they are now internationally renown for being guns at breeding tree kangaroos.

I have seen a Goodfellows tree kangaroo joey on a few occasions in this exhibit.

both pairs pretty consistently produce one joey every 11 months and have done for a number of years. this species wasn't doing so great just a few years ago, but thanks to melbourne's successes - they have, via international trades, begun to restock our zoos with goodfellow's. now taronga and currumbin also have pairs.

its always great to see how much people actually enjoy watching tree kangaroos. they are near-enough a native australian species but still people are fascinated by them. melbournes old tree kangaroo/echidna/cassowary exhibit always had a decent crowd there and was one of the liveliest exhibits at the zoo.

hopefully, the animals will get a new exhibit sometime soon. this one doesn't really do them justice. tree kangaroos are one of melbournes high-profile advertised species (along with tigers, elephants, orangs and gorilla) - so lets hope something happens soon!

We were at Currumbin in Feb and I am sure we saw four TKs, the exhibits look ok too.