Tender loving care for orphaned tree roo
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Meet Makaia, an orphaned tree kangaroo which arrived at the Singapore Zoo from Adelaide on July 4, seen here in the arms of Dr Serena Oh, assistant director of veterinary services, Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
In November 2014, Makaia was adopted by a wallaby after its mother died when it was seven weeks old.
Yesterday, it was taken to the Wildlife Healthcare and Research Centre for a health check, including an X-ray, blood test and dental examination.
There, veterinary nurse Norsham Abdul Wahab shaved off a small portion of Makaia's fur to draw blood.
Goodfellow's tree kangaroos inhabit the rainforests of New Guinea and are a distant relative of the kangaroo and the wallaby.
The species lives in trees. It is an endangered species and has seen its numbers decline in the past 50 years by about 50 per cent due to poaching and deforestation.
Twenty-one-month-old Makaia, which was given a clean bill of health, weighs a healthy 8.4kg.
It will be quarantined for a month before making its debut in an air-conditioned enclosure in the zoo's Australasian Zone.
