FOLSOM (Louisiana) - CHRISTINA Cooper has been wearing a kangaroo lately - a foundling named Skippy, who was rejected by his mother at a wildlife park in eastern Louisiana.

Inside a canvas carryall over Cooper's shoulder is an artificial kangaroo pouch for the 6-month-old red kangaroo.

It's demanding duty - Skippy must be bottle-fed every four hours, though he's starting to eat grass and other green stuff.

Workers at Global Wildlife Center in Folsom found the joey, as young 'roos are called, on the ground May 13 in the area where about 40 red kangaroos live.

Cooper, one of the park's two animal care specialists, waited about 90 minutes, hoping the mother would pick it up.

'That was really hard just to watch,' Cooper said. 'But the adults were really not interested in him. Nobody came to claim him.' He was probably about 4 months old and utterly helpless.

Though adult red kangaroos can grow more than 1.83 meters tall, a newborn joey is about the size of a jelly bean. Eyeless, earless, all but skinless and with only buds where its hind legs will be, a newborn hauls itself into its mother's pouch.

There, the 'pouch embryo' clamps its mouth onto a teat. It cannot even open its mouth for about a month, and usually stays attached for about six months.

Cooper doesn't know how or why Skippy came out of his mother's pouch. A female that is stressed or chased by a predator may expel a joey, Cooper said. But the Folsom reserve keeps no carnivores on its 365 hectare property north of New Orleans.

When he was found, Skippy weighed a bit more than half a kilo. His head was smaller than a man's thumb. Hairless at first, Skippy began to grow gray fur. Now, some of that fur is showing traces of the reddish-brown that gives the species its name. -- AP