Rocket the Rock Star Wallaby Growing in Leaps and Bounds

Rocket the rock star rock wallaby from Aussie Ark has leapt out of his pouch and is on the final bound towards the wild. At seven months old the brush-tailed rock wallaby joey has tripled in size since being rescued two months ago, growing from 600 grams to 1.7 kilograms.

As he approaches seven months old, Rockets adoptive dad, Dean Reid, has been mimicking the natural life cycle of the wallaby which by now would be out of the pouch and following mum at foot.

“He would still be going into the pouch for milk but his Mum would be stopping him going into the pouch fully by either pushing him away or with little nips,” Mr Reid said. “So I replicate that a little bit; I take his pouch away and decrease his milk. But I don’t give him nips or anything like that!”

Brush-tailed rock wallabies are strong jumpers who live among rocky escarpment country on Australia's East coast. For Dean this means that his new son is testing out his leaps on his household furniture. Fragile items like candles have been packed away to allow Rocket to race around the house and test out his skills.

As a nocturnal species this activity mostly occurs at night, slightly disrupting the sleep of Dean especially with a favourite spot being his bed.

“Rocket’s species is endangered,” Mr Reid said. “They’ve been hammered by bush fires, flood, droughts and ferals. So saving little Rocket, to go back into our breeding program, has been a highlight of my life.”

Rocket is destined for life in the Species Recovery Unit at Aussie Ark. Its hoped that eventually he will meet a girlfriend and contribute to the survival of his threatened species. Aussie Ark recently opened a complex of new enclosures for the brush-tailed rock wallaby within their Species Recovery Unit.