The Bloomsburg Children’s Museum brought a special guest — well, three special guests — to the Green Free Library’s summer reading program on Wednesday, July 17.
Matt Aldinger of Aldinger Farms in Halifax brought baby kangaroos Bailey, 10 months, and Bella, nine months, to the front lawn of the library for an up close look at the mellow marsupials.
“In the wild, adult kangaroos can run 30 miles an hour and jump 30 feet at the a time,” Aldinger told the crowd. “But we kind of baby them, and these two are lazy. I have to dump them out of this pouch so they can exercise.”
The dozens of kids in attendance were full of questions: What do they eat? Who are their natural predators? How long do they stay with their mom? How big are they when they’re born?
(Answers, respectively: kangaroos are herbivores and eat grasses and vegetables; their main predator in their native Australia are wild dogs; they spend a year in the pouch with their mothers; and they are as big as a jellybean at birth.
Aldinger also noted that kangaroos can see in color and that their large ears are unique to mammals because they swivel. Bella and Bailey weigh about 15 pounds each.
Green Free Library staff member Ashley Connolly held Bella as kids formed a line to pet her. Bailey was enclosed in a small pen where children (and plenty of adults) could touch her and observe her eating and hopping.
“See her tail, how much bigger and stronger it is than her legs?” Aldinger asked the kids. “It’s almost like a third leg. It’s so strong that the best way to pick her up is by the tail.”
Aldinger Farms raises kangaroos in preparation for re-homing them to zoos. The soft tote-like bags in which the kangaroos were lounging comfortably mimic a mother’s pouch, he said. In the wild, kangaroos live approximately ten years, but in safe captivity they can live 20 years or so.
The Green Free Library also provided crafts and games to go along with Wednesday’s theme of “safari.”
“What’s your job?” one boy asked Aldinger.
“This is my job,” Aldinger replied.
“Well, I want to do that,” the boy told him.
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