Your morning adorable: Keepers raise wallaby joey in Tokyo zoo

Wallaby joeys are very dependent on their mothers and, of course, spend a lot of time in their pouches.  So when a wallaby mother at Tokyo's Edogawa Natural Zoo neglected her baby, keepers took over parental duties themselves.

Now, the joey is the constant companion of the zoo's staff, often nesting in a simulated pouch, and even occasionally pitching in with supervising clerical tasks.  More photos after the jump!

'High' wallabies accused of making crop circles after eating poppies in Tasmania

Poppy growners in the Australian state of Tasmania have long wondered about a strange phenomenon. The crop circles that have been known to, well, crop up in poppy fields have even inspired legends, the Mercury of Hobart, Tasmania, reports. Like crop circles elsewhere in the world, the poppy circles were mysterious, but no answers were forthcoming. 

Mystery solved ... maybe. 

Tasmania supplies about half of the world's legally-produced opium, which is made from poppies and used to make painkillers like morphine. But, of course, it's important to safeguard the plant, which is used not only in legal painkillers, but also to produce heroin. 

Security for the poppy plants was the subject of discussion at a recent parliamentary hearing, which took an unexpected turn when Lara Giddings, attorney general of Tasmania, spoke of a strange discovery.

"The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," Giddings told those assembled. "Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."

So ... high wallabies hopping in circles cause the crop-circle phenomenon? Not everyone believes the story, but other animals -- deer and sheep, for example -- have been known to enjoy the poppy plant and act strangely afterward.

Australian court stops kangaroo cull near Canberra, at least temporarily

Australia's kangaroos have gotten a reprieve -- at least for the time being. Seven thousand of the 9,000 kangaroos living on defense department land in the Australian Capital Territory were slated for death based upon the assertion that they were harming native grasslands. 

Animal welfare groups disagreed and made their case to an Australian appeals court, which agreed that the killings should cease until a full review is conducted.  About 4,000 kangaroos have already been killed by civilian contractors working for the defense department.  Kangaroo advocates are calling the court's ruling a big victory, as Australia's ABC News reports:

Animal Liberation's lawyer Malcolm Caufield says the Tribunal's ruling sets a precedent and sends a strong message to the ACT Government.

"It gives right to a public interest group that cares about the rights of animals to do something if the Government is acting illegally," he said.

Australian Society for Kangaroos spokeswoman Nikki Sutterby says it is a significant win.

"It's a fantastic victory for kangaroos because for the first time a judge has made the decision on this instead of the Government," she said.

But some government officials are outraged -- Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has said that Canberra's local government may even enact new legislation to prevent courts from intervening in future kangaroo culls. 

Kangaroo recovering after being shot through the head with an arrow

An eastern grey kangaroo found shot through the head with an arrow last Thursday has earned a guardedly optimistic prognosis, thanks to the work of veterinary surgeon Dr. Michael Lynch of the Melbourne Zoo. 

Dr. Lynch operated Saturday to remove the arrow and will monitor the male kangaroo, now called Beau, for the next few weeks.  Both close monitoring and a course of antibiotics are necessary to ensure he doesn't fall victim to infection, a serious concern since the arrow penetrated his nasal cavity.  The Australian Associated Press reports:

"This was a big injury, but because the arrow didn't seem to have been in there for a long time, and the injury was fresh, hopefully he'll be okay," Dr Lynch said.  ...

Wildlife Victoria has offered a $10,000 reward [about $7,670 U.S.] to catch the person responsible. Wildlife Victoria media coordinator Fiona Corke said she couldn't believe anyone could be so cruel.

"It must be a very cold-hearted person to do that," she said.

Police received a report of two men shooting at kangaroos with crossbows in the Australian city of Bundoora; the men have not been caught and it's unclear if they are responsible for the shooting of this particular kangaroo. 

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Beau recovering after surgery.  Credit: AFP/Getty Images.

Your morning adorable: Orphaned kangaroo joeys get a helping hand in Australia

These kangaroo joeys, rescued from the recent bushfires in Australia, are lucky -- they're getting great care from wildlife rehabilitator Annie Williams.  (They'd be unable to survive in the wild without their mothers.)

Sadly, many other Australian joeys aren't so lucky -- many parts of the country permit commercial kangaroo hunting.  While adults are the hunters' targets, the government mandates the killing (by methods we're sickened to think about) of the joeys orphaned when their mothers are killed by hunters.  The rationale, according to government-issued statements, is that the alternative to dispatching the joeys would be to allow them to die of starvation, dehydration or predation. 

Animal welfare advocates disagree, pointing to joeys like these as evidence that the babies can survive with help from caring people.  An organization called the Australian Society for Kangaroos has taken up the cause (and its website lists ways to help). 

More photos of these guys after the jump!

Joeys are decapitated, clubbed as byproduct of commercial kangaroo hunting industry

A spokesperson for the Australian Society for Kangaroos estimates that hundreds of thousands of kangaroo joeys are killed -- many by decapitation or clubbing -- each year as a result of commercial kangaroo hunting in Australia.  And with a large portion of the state of New South Wales being opened up to commercial hunting, Australian animal advocates fear it's about to get worse.

"Shooters will be able to kill 150,000 kangaroos in the Central West -- say a third are females and of them, say, half have a joey, that's 25,000 joeys decapitated, bashed or shot each year," Nikki Sutterby of the kangaroo protection group told Australia's Daily Telegraph. 

Australia's federal government and the regional New South Wales government have rejected alternate methods to decapitation, clubbing or shooting, the recommended means of dispatching the orphaned joeys that are left behind when their mothers are killed by commercial hunters. 

Hairless joeys found in their mothers' pouches must be decapitated or bludgeoned to death, the Daily Telegraph reports.  Older joeys are to be bludgeoned or shot. 

Your morning adorable: western gray kangaroo joey at Switzerland's Basel Zoo

This western gray kangaroo is one of several joeys born recently at Switzerland's Basel Zoo. 

Since kangaroo joeys are so small at birth (about the size of a honeybee), they often remain undetected by zookeepers for some time. That being the case, the Basel Zoo explains that it marks the "birthday" of a joey as the date its head first pops out of its mother's pouch.

During the western gray kangaroo breeding season, males compete for the affection of females in "boxing" matches.  More often than not, only the most dominant male breeds with the females in his group.  The Basel Zoo's recent joey additions are all half-siblings, since they have different mothers but  the same father: the zoo's only male western gray kangaroo, Eddy.

The Basel Zoo is also home to another, more famous animal baby: Farasi, the baby hippopotamus who recently became the source of controversy when reports surfaced that the zoo might resort to killing him if it couldn't find him a home at another zoo before he reached maturity.  (The zoo later announced that, although there are "rare cases in which we have to kill an animal," this was unlikely to be an option in Farasi's case.)

More photos after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Matschie's tree kangaroo

The Singapore Zoo's lone Matschie's tree kangaroo lives in its Fragile Forest exhibit, which houses animals in danger of extinction.  Matschie's tree kangaroos are native to Papua New Guinea, where logging and hunting have threatened the species. 

Fortunately, conservation biologists from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle recently collaborated with Papua New Guinea villagers to create a 187,800-acre conservation area to protect species like Matschie's tree kangaroo. 

The species is one of over 50 species of kangaroo, including about 10 types of tree kangaroo.  They're much smaller than the kangaroos most of us are more familiar with (like Australia's red kangaroo), weighing about 15 to 25 pounds -- but, like their bigger, land-living cousins, can jump great distances.  A leap of 30 feet is not uncommon for these little guys. 

More photos after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Kangaroo joey drinks from a bottle

Michele Mauldin feeds Sydney, an 8-month-old kangaroo joey. 

Sydney's mother, a resident of New Mexico's Alameda Park Zoo, died.  Mauldin is acting as a foster mother to the baby until she goes to her future home, the Dallas Zoo.

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Norm Dettlaff/Associated Press