Koala baby bump heralds first arrival of marsupial at Dutch zoo

Ouwehands Dierenpark in Rhenen has welcomed the first koala to be born at a Dutch zoo.

The only zoo in the Netherlands to have a koala breeding programme, Ouwehands said the koala was probably born some two months ago.

Zoo workers suspected that the birth had taken place but it wasn’t until a telltale bulge in the mother koala’s pouch that they could be sure.

The koala male and female arrived at the zoo in April last year and since then several attempts were made to encourage them mate.

Baby koalas are born blind and naked and scramble up into the mother’s pouch immediately after the birth and stay there for some six months. After that they hitch a ride on their mother’s back until, at around one year old, they will venture out on their own.

Koalas are an endangered species, threatened in their native Australia by bushfires and floods.