Bronx Zoo announces birth of rare tree kangaroo

A baby tree kangaroo, about the size of a human thumbnail at birth, is the first of its species born at the Bronx Zoo since 2008.

The Matschie’s tree kangaroo is native to Papua New Guinea and is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It is arboreal and lives in mountain rainforests.

The species is much smaller than Australia’s well-known red kangaroo. An adult male Matschie’s tree kangaroo weighs between 20 and 25 lb (9–11 kg). The tiny joey crawls through the mother’s fur to enter her pouch and emerges after about seven months.

Conservationists believe that fewer than 2,500 Matschie’s tree kangaroos remain in the wild. They are threatened by habitat destruction, hunting and other human activities.

Alligator captured outside a local school

Police in South Carolina shared video of an unusual situation that resulted when a studious alligator walked up to a school.

The Charleston Police Department said officers responded when a gator was spotted walking right outside of Daniel Island School.

“Not your everyday arrest,” police said in their Facebook post. The post included video of the officers safely capturing the alligator for relocation. “Our team showed no fear and got the job done! You never know what you’ll encounter as an officer,” the post said.

New capybara pups named after Encanto movie

The Houston Zoo has a pair of new residents — two healthy capybara. The brother and sister have been named Bruno and Pepa after characters from the animated Disney film Encanto, the zoo said in a statement.

Encanto is set in Colombia, one of the countries the capybara’s call home. The siblings were born April 11 to mum, Squirt, and dad, Rio. They are the third litter of greater capybaras born at the zoo in the last 10 years.

Mother and children spent several days bonding behind the scenes, before making their public debut.

The semi-aquatic capybara is native to South America, and is the world’s largest living rodent.

Fully-grown adults can weigh up to 145 pounds. The herbivores are closely-related to guinea pigs.

Scientists grow plants in lunar dirt

For the first time, scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon collected by Nasa’s Apollo astronauts. Thale cress was planted in moon soil returned by Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and other moonwalkers.

The good news: All of the seeds sprouted. The downside was that after the first week, the coarseness and other properties of the lunar soil stressed the small, flowering weeds so much that they grew more slowly than seedlings planted in fake moon dirt from Earth. Most of the moon plants ended up stunted.

The Florida scientists hope to recycle their lunar soil later this year, planting more thale cress before possibly moving on to other vegetation.

The research and results were published in Communications Biology.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 21st, 2022