Your morning adorable: Koala joey makes her debut at the San Francisco Zoo
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The San Francisco Zoo is still celebrating the birth of its newest koala joey -- despite the fact that she was born back in 2010.
Zoo staff first discovered the baby when they checked the pouch of her mother, Zakary, in December. Since koalas are born a little, shall we say, underdone, they remain in their mothers’ pouches for months after birth; the joey didn’t emerge fully from Zakary’s pouch until February. She debuted to media photographers earlier this month.
The joey is the first koala to be born at the zoo since 2000. She hasn’t yet been named.
The San Francisco Zoo is a participant in a conservation breeding program designed to help koalas bounce back from a steep population drop that’s due in part to an outbreak of stress-induced chlamydiosis among wild members of the species. Both Zakary and the joey’s father, Travis Jr., came to the San Francisco Zoo from the San Diego Zoo as part of a temporary loan agreement.
See more photos and video of the joey after the jump!
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-- Lindsay Barnett