The life of an orphaned tree kangaroo was at risk when his mother died, prompting zoo keepers in Adelaide, Australia to take the initiative to save the baby kangaroo by using a surrogate wallaby mother, TIME reported.
Cross-species surrogacy has never been attempted before, but the zoo needed to try their luck to save the baby kangaroo.
"We had no idea if the yellow-foot rock-wallaby would accept the tree kangaroo joey, but if we wanted to save the joey we had to try our luck," veterinarian David McLelland said, according to Sky News.
Makaia spends the day at the zoo and goes home with Gayl during evenings, and she takes care of the kangaroo full-time on her days off. He will be watched by the zoo keeper until he no longer needs overnight feeds and once he is around 15-18 months old.
