Baby Kangaroo Documentary Has Colleague Hopping

11 Mar 2011

 

Milla (l.), a Matschie’s tree kangaroo, kisses her
baby, Kuna (r.) in their quarters at the Lincoln
Children’s Zoo in Lincoln, Neb.

By Rick Chambers
PfizerWorld

Pfizer’s latest encounter with a rare and endangered species will lead to an unprecedented video documentary of a newborn kangaroo’s first months of life.Correspondent Network

The baby Matschie’s tree kangaroo, or joey, was born to mother Milla at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo in Lincoln, Neb., last September. This kangaroo species is native to Papua New Guinea. At birth, joeys continue developing in a protective pouch on the mother’s abdomen, a process that takes about 10 months.           
To monitor the joey’s progress, the zoo borrowed a specialized video camera from Pfizer’s Global Supply facility in Lincoln. The tiny camera, called a boroscope, is about as wide as a pencil and is used to check welds inside pipes. Zoo staff is using the boroscope to document the joey’s development.           

“We are filming almost daily,” said John Chapo, president and chief executive officer of the Lincoln Children’s Zoo. “This will be, and in fact already is, the most comprehensive filming and documentation of the development of a Matschie’s tree kangaroo ever done.”            

If this story seems familiar, it’s because Pfizer has helped the zoo monitor the development of joeys before. In 2009, Milla gave birth to twins — the first documented case for the species. The Pfizer boroscope helped the zoo keep a close watch on the newborn kangaroos, named Kuna and Yopno, until they emerged from their mother’s pouch. To read a previous PfizerWorld story about the twins, click here. 

           

A newborn baby kangaroo, called a joey, shortly after
birth in its mother’s pouch at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo.

Yopno is now enjoying life at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Wash. Sadly, Kuna died in September 2009 after suffering a head injury from a fall.
As he did two years ago, Pfizer colleague Tom Rathe, a Maintenance Technician at the Lincoln site, arranged to loan the boroscope to the zoo again. It’s a task that has personal meaning for him.           
“I always enjoy offering support to the zoo,” Rathe said. “I live near the zoo and took my kids there often when they were younger. My grandmother lived near the zoo as well, and as a kid growing up, that was a big part of staying at grandma’s — a trip to the zoo.”           
This time, using the Pfizer camera, the Lincoln Children’s Zoo will create a much more detailed video record of the joey’s development. Chapo said the zoo is looking to host an international workshop for tree kangaroo professionals later this year, at which the video will be a valuable learning tool to aid kangaroo care at other facilities.