Friday, February 15, 2013

Rare albino wallaby born at zoo

A rare albino wallaby has been born at a zoo in Cambridgeshire. The bald joey, with pink eyes, was spotted by a member of the public after emerging from its mother's pouch at Linton Zoo, near Saffron Walden.



The zoo believes the albino red-necked wallaby, which will grow white fur, is a descendant of one given to the Queen. Zoo director Kim Simmons said staff initially got "a bit of a shock", but the joey was now being well looked after by its parents Kylie and Jason.



"It's been in the pouch for a little while now and we've been able to see it wriggling around, but when it popped its head out for the first time we got a bit of a shock - we didn't really expect it to be an albino," said Ms Simmons.


YouTube link.

"[Our wallabies] are probably descended from albinos that were donated to the Queen on a state visit to Australia in 1962. On the very odd occasion an albino will be born and we've got that very odd occasion."

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