In a first, Parma wallaby gives birth at Nandankanan

Bhubaneswar: For the first time, a Parma wallaby gave birth to a baby at the Nandankanan Zoological Park here, zoo authorities announced on Saturday. This birth takes the park’s total population of Parma wallaby to 3.“For the first time, this species successfully bred at the park. Though Nandankanan maintained wallabies from April 1973 to April 1976, no birth was recorded during the period,” said an official statement issued by the zoo authorities.The joey, a young wallaby, was confirmed on Saturday after animal care staff observed it ‘head poking’ from its mother’s pouch, a development milestone reached 4 to 5 months after birth.The parent pair was received from John and Grooves Farm, Hyderabad, in Dec 2023 and socialised since Aug 2025. They have a short gestation period of about 35 days. After birth, the newborn joey crawls from the birth canal into the mother’s pouch, where it attaches to a teat and continues its development with support for suckling and thermoregulation, said the zoo authorities.As the joey remains dependent on its mother for thermoregulation and will not be fully weaned until 10 months of age, both mother and offspring are being closely monitored via CCTV surveillance in enclosure no. 37G to ensure their continued health and safety, said the official statement of the zoo.