Matschie's Tree Kangaroo: Ghosts of the Forest

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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Ebony Money. Then I'm Rick Sports. Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts. This podcast is a production of High Heart Radio and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, an international nonprofit conservation organization behind the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. High in the Northern Mountains on the island of Papua New Guinea and the Cloud Forest, lives an animal found nowhere else in the world. Matches tree kangaroos spend most of their lives seventy one feet above ground. The matches tree kangaroo doesn't look like the well known ground kangaroos, So Rick, what makes the matches tree kangaroo a kangaroo? Well? Ebany, I think it's safe to say that it's all in the name and the bones. When we look at it from how they are classified, or looking at it through the taxonomy lens of you will we know that tree kangaroo's tooth structure and skeletal structure is the same as other macropods or the scientific family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, wallabies, and wallaroos and so on, and now most of the species in the macropod a or our terrestrial or ground dwellers, But at some point the tree kangaroos started to evolve into tree dwellers. Interestingly enough, more recent scientific development that allows us to look closely at the genetic building blocks suggests that tree kangaroos are more closely related to rock wallabies than any other macropod. You know that said wallabies and kangaroos are closely related. Oh and for those who don't know what a matt Chee's tree kangaroo looks like. They have a reddish sort of mahogany coloration on their back and a dark stripe down the spine. Its limbs and feet and ear tips are sort of a yellowish color, and its face has sort of a white cream color to it. And one other fun thing about the tree kangaroos. There is a special whirl of hair sort of in the middle of their spine, and the hair then goes sort of forwards from that world towards the nose and from the world down towards the tail. If you have a dogger cat at home, you know, when you pet them, all the hair lays in one direction. But for tree kangaroos, that world is important and the way the hair lays is important because when it's raining, they'll curl up into a ball and that world becomes the top part and all the water can run off, keeping the body dry. Wow, that's pretty cool. So how did ground kangaroos like the red kangaroo become so much more well known than tree kangaroos? Rick, do you think it's possibly like the remoteness of the animal's habitat um the fact that they're seventy two fet above ground. Yeah, Ebony, I think it's not just the matches tree kangaroo's remote habitat though. I mean, there are a total of fourteen recognized species of tree kangaroo and most people haven't even heard of one of them. So I'd say that it's probably a combination of their location the dense forest areas, and and the fact that it's just kind of very remote and even if you are able to go to the forest where they live, they can be very difficult to find. Therefore, they just aren't as well known outside of their native range. And when we are looking at the matches tree kangaroo specifically well, they have a very small home range in the mountain cloud forests. They tend to only be found at high elevations up to eleven thousand feet. So when you add all of that together, not many people have seen them, and not many people even know much about them beyond their native habitat. So you mentioned earlier about the look of the matches kangaroo, but to expand on that, I was noticing how they have thick fur and cute endearing faces that make them almost look like a plush toy. Do these features serve them in some way? Well, yes, Ebany, they do look a lot like a plush toy. But I can assure you their coat is coarse and a little bit oily to the touch, not nearly as soft and cuddly as a plush toy. That thick, coarse coat helps them in a few ways. The fur is thick enough to insulate a tree kangaroo against damp weather, and the oily coat helps repel that water. Are similar to Iz saying the way the hair lays is very important. Now, this is all sort of a great combination of a coat you would want to have when you live in the wet cloud forest, like they do, and it's coloring camouflages for protection against predators, including humans. Predators. Okay, we'll come back to that. But one of the kangaroo's most identifiable characteristics that people often think of when you think of a kangaroo is their ability to jump or hop. How do the tree kangaroos there in this category, Well, yeah, let's jump into exactly how tree kangaroos move around trees, shall we. When it comes to the classic hopping movement of a kangaroo, tree kangaroos cannady to hop around on the ground, albeit not quite as well as their bigger terrestrial kangaroos do, but they can. When it comes to life in the trees, though well, hopping doesn't really serve quite as well as it does is a way to move around on the ground. So tree kangaroos have long, sharp claws both front and hind feet that help them climb the trees with ease, and they have muscular or arms that give a strong grip, allowing them to hold on pretty much their whole body weight to the branches if they need to. That coupled with patches of textured skin on the feet that also helped with gripping means they are well suited for life in the trees. And a fun side note, our friend, the Matchee's tree kangaroo is believed to be the best vertical climber of all of the tree kangaroo species. Since tree kangaroos spend so much of their time in trees, does this mean that they're eating leaves and they're sustaining themselves off of food that they find in the trees. Well, I mean, before we hop into that, I just want to say we've had some fun in the past sharing interesting words with our audience, So here's another one. Fliverous Matchee's cheat kangaroos are full of oars, meaning that they eat leaves from a variety of forest trees. And like you pointed out, they live their life in the trees, so it's very convenient that their main source of food is right there for them to have and worth noting they also supplement their very highly leafy diet with some fruit and flowers, may some tender grasses when the season's right, and even tree bark. We've mentioned that Matchi's tree kangaroos spend most of their time above ground, but when might they come to the ground well Ean. Although tree is right there in their name, it is not uncommon to see them on the ground. Usually they are just moving from one tree to another when you do see them on the ground, but they can also spend time on the ground enjoying some fallen fruit or foraging for some seasonal plants that might be growing on the forest floor. It's estimated that there are fewer than twenty adult matches tree kangaroos left in their native habitat. That's down, Rick. Can you talk about the work being done to turn those conditions around? Oh? Yeah, seventy The matchee s tree kangaroos. They are listed as an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, and the biggest challenge is based on things going on in their habitat like mining, logging, and hunting. Now, thankfully, a lot of work is being done to help minimize these challenges, including land and water protection and a lot of educational awareness programs, and of course, zoos have stepped into help too. In the nineteen nineties, zoos in North America knew they could make a difference, and they created a species survival plan for tree kangaroos, a plan that carefully matches individuals across the zoos to ensure the best genetic pairing for their mates to help create a very diverse and safe population. And one of the biggest tree kangaroo conservation efforts comes from our friends at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. They are in partnership with the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program, working with local communities in rural Papua New Guinea to protect the endangered Matchees tree kangaroo in the habitat in which it lives. The program helped to establish the country's first and only nationally recognized conservation area and works with communities and governments to address the local needs including livelihoods, health and education. It really is a great example of how conservation can really make a difference when we all together in partnership. Coming up, we'll be talking to one of our own senior wildlife care specialists who helps to care for the tree kangaroos at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. But first this now it's time for the San Diego Zoom Minute, an opportunity for you to learn what's new at the zoo and Safari Park. In May, the San Diego Zoos Fire Park opened his Walk About Australia habitat, and with its opening it became one of the few locations where you can see Matche's tree kangaroos in person. Since the tree dwelling kangaroos arrived at the San Diego Zoosa Fire Park, they have already welcomed a new Joey born right there at Walk About Australia. This was significant for the San Diego zou Safari Park, but even more significant for the population of Matche's tree kangaroos, whose species continues to need all of the help we can get. And did you know fun fact jumped to it matchis tree kangaroos can leave sixty feet to the ground without injury, and even though tree kangaroos are quiet by nature, they still manage to get their points across. They communicate via visual display, touch and some vocalization, and most importantly through chemical cues. With the small expressive face, a prominent pink nose, and teddy bear like ears, matches tree kangaroos seem like a cross between an opossum, a koala, and maybe a bit of a house cat thrown in While these marsupios have the kangaroo name, they bear little resemblance to their much bigger cousins. Now Here to tell us a lot more about the matches tree kangaroo is Senior walife care Specialist Katie Christofferson. She's with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Hi Katie, Hi, Hey, how are you doing great? Thank you? So tell us about your position as a wildlife care specialists and what that means for your role with working with animals such as the tree kangaroos. Yeah. So, as a wildlife care specialists at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, we're tasked with the care of the wildlife on our specific team. From myself, I work on the Australia team and we're tasked with ensuring their habitats are in tip top shape. We want to make sure they're eating all of their a lot of diet, to make sure they are exactly where we want them to be as far as their weight and how they're looking and feeling and acting. We're also in charge of and this is the really exciting part about my job as we're also in charge of being a part of their conservation through our breeding programs that we have through Asia accredited SZUS, So the Matchi's tree kangaroos have their breeding program. We do have a breeding pair with us at the park. But we all so maintain all sorts of behaviors as we use in our industry, training the animals that we work with in order to participate in their own veterinary care voluntarily as well. So there are fourteen species of tree kangaroos and their native to Australia and Papua New Guinea, Indonesia. How is this environment recreated at the San Diego Zoos Safari Park. Yeah, a lot goes into it. A lot of different departments are involved. So we try and match the species of plants that are found in their natural environment. We try and get as close as we can to matching the temperature, the weather, the humidity, everything that we possibly can for them to ensure that their body's physiology is being taken care of as best as we possibly can. We also want them to feel comfortable in their environment where guests would be able to see them. So there's lots of for tree kangaroos, lots of foliage for them, lots of trees for them, to climb in um in places for them to hide if they want to get out of the sun, or if they feel like they want to take a snooze for a little while. So tree kangaroos are a very interesting niche that people may not be as familiar with. Can you talk about any behaviors that matches tree kangaroos share with their larger ground kangaroo cousins or any differences. One of the major differences is that they climb trees. There are boreal They are in the trees the majority of the time. Occasionally they'll come down to the ground to feed, and oftentimes during breeding interactions they will be on the ground as well. Some of the similarities that they have would be their dentition. Their digestive tracks are obviously similar, but they also will lick their forearms and their chests if they're stressed from heat, if it's too hot, or if they're worried about predators being around. Instead of sweating so like a dog would pant, we would swear as people, the kangaroos or macropods in general would lick their forearms and as that saliva evaporates, it cools their body off, so the San Diego Zoo Safari Park has been caring for Matchi's tree kangaroos since and I understand there's already been since some exciting birth announcements. Can you talk about that. Yes, our first two tree kangaroos that we had, Polly and Spike, successfully had a Joey who was named Luca. Polly and Luca lived together for the appropriate amount of time that a joey and mother would be living together. You were able to see them as a guest out in their habitat, grooming each other, doing all of the wonderful things that we like to see tree kangaroos doing. And Polly has since been moved to another institution for an opportunity to express her valuable genetics for the tree kangaroo community and has actually been successful a second time with another Joey that she's currently caring for. So would the process be considered assisted breeding or or how is it described? Because I just wanted to know, like what all goes into the process of the tree king or is breeding under human care? Yeah, that's actually a great question. It's quite scientific. Typically, would collect fecals from our females at least three times a week, which then gets sent to a reproductive physiologists where they do fecal hormonal essays and they track her estrogen levels and give us graphs to give us the opportunity to match her actual hormonal activity with the behaviors that we're seeing and recording from our tree kangaroos throughout the week. So we compare those two bits of information together to make our best educated guests to putting the tree kangaroos together when they would be most successful. So they're solitary by nature, so we have them separated as they would be more comfortable being. And then when we feel that those signs have come together and we feel like it's time to put them together, we would then give them that opportunity to breed, sometimes one day and sometimes we leave them together for up to three or four days, depending on how they're doing with each other. And why is this necessary? Is this just a precaution or is this needed to increase the chances of survival for this animal. So tree kangaroos are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List and their population in the wild is declining. So having this population in the United States that we can have as a backup to be able to reintroduce genetics into the wild if we were able to eventually. Is the basis for keeping the breeding programs active. In speaking of the wild or nature, one of the things that has been interesting about having these conversations is learning about the important roles that these animals often play in the ecosystem. So what role do the tree kangaroos play in the ecosystem? Yeah, so tree kangaroos are going to be fullivores, so they eat a lot of foliage, different types of flowers, sometimes fruits, which also helps to aid in pollination. A lot of tree species would really rely on the consumption of those bits and fruits. So what are some of the biggest challenges that matchi's tree kangaroo's face in nature? I would imagine that deforestation is probably high on the list. Yeah, it's very high on the list. That creates habitat fragmentation. There's obviously fewer places for them to reside if their trees are disappearing, development of local human communities where roads are being built, and even dogs, feral dogs, wild dogs present a threat to the tree kangaroos. But another one that's a little bit more challenging to touch on is the threat that humans directly play in the role for tree kangaroos being endangered human population increase and encroachment obviously, but they're also caught for their meat for bush meat, and their fur is traded and some ritualistic types of trade as well. Wow, is there anything being done in an effort to improve the human wildlife coexistence near the tree kangaroo's natural habitat? Absolutely, the tree kangaroos being a part of ASA's Safe Program. The program itself is a framework that protects the threatened species. It builds on established recovery plans that are already in action in the United States within those as accredited zoos and in the environment in which they're found in the wild. And it prioritizes collaboration between other accredited institutions so that everybody is on the same page and really putting the efforts and the funding into protecting that species as a whole. So, Katie, with this collaboration, what has been decided, what's being done, What are some of the next steps. It's some of the next steps would be funding for re establishing some of the natural environments for the tree kangaroos, education for local communities to help them understand and cohabitate better with the tree kangaroos, and working on the fundraising and the educational outreach in the United States, just by providing people the opportunity to see these creatures on their vacation, so to speak, and creating some passion and desire for the regular public to want to help and donate and be a part of the process. What's the learning opportunity for people who have the opportunity to observe a tree kangaro One of the biggest things we hope that all guests can take away at the Safari Park with our tree kangaroo habitat is the inspiration and the knowledge that there are species that maybe people didn't know about before, and they can become a little bit more aware that there are more species out there than we even realize that need protection, They need people to care about them, and most certainly, they need people to want to preserve the environments in which they reside. What would you say is the best part of going to work every day at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. One of my favorite things about my job and coming into work every day is I get the opportunity to not only develop a relationship with specific individuals as far as the tree kangaroos or the other species that we work with, but developing a relationship with a species, especially an endangered species, as a whole is really incredible and you learn how they fit into the environment perfectly, and you learn how they are a valued part of their environment as well. Thank you so much for talking with us. We've been talking to Katie Christofferson, eight, senior wildlife care specialist working with mammals at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Thank you, thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed learning about the matches tree kangaroo. Be sure to subscribe and tune into next week's episode, in which we bring to the story of a bird species that many call a living dinosaur. I'm Ebony Money and I'm Rich Schwartz. Thanks for listening. If you would like to find out more about San Diego Zoo Wild Left Alliance, please visit sdz W a dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of I Heart Radio. Our producer is Nikkia Swinton and our executive producer is Marcy to Peanut. Our audio engineer and editor is Sierra Spreen. For more shows from My Heart Radio, check out the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.