{"id":70113,"date":"2025-08-15T11:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T11:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70113\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T11:39:10","slug":"perth-zoo-endangered-numbats-reveal-tiny-joeys-that-look-like-num-nuts-in-adorable-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70113\/","title":{"rendered":"Perth Zoo: Endangered Numbats reveal tiny joeys that look like \u2018num nuts\u2019 in adorable video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perth Zoo has shared a very cute video revealing the unique way which numbats rear their young, causing many to question if they are joeys or enlarged male reproductive organs.<\/p>\n

The video was shared on social media, highlighting the breeding program at the zoo which is unique across the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the ONLY zoo in the world to breed critically endangered numbats. Since 1993, we have released 321 numbats through our breed-for-release program. With fewer than 1,500 left in the wild, every joey truly matters,\u201d the caption read.<\/p>\n

The footage shows a female numbat in an enclosure with all four legs on the ground, before it perches up on its hind legs to reveal two tiny joeys clinging on which on first glance look like they could be part of the female\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumbats aren\u2019t your typical marsupial mums! Unlike most marsupials, they don\u2019t have a pouch. Their tiny joeys cling to their belly as she scurries around,\u201d Perth Zoo wrote on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many people were quick to comment the uncanny resemblance the joeys had to male reproductive organs.<\/p>\n

\u201cLol!!! I thought it was a boy at first. Bahaha. You guys are doing such a great job. The species and I thank you,\u201d one person said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNum Nuts!\u201d another commented.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre they drinking milk? Or hanging on for dear life?\u201d said a third.<\/p>\n

The joeys cling to their mother\u2019s teats until they are big enough to be deposited in a hollow log or burrow while she forages.<\/p>\n

\"NumbatsCamera IconNumbats are officially listed as endangered by the IUCN. Credit: Adobe\/Imogen<\/p>\n

Numbats exclusively eat termites and can eat up to 20,000 a day. They do not need to drink water because they gain all of their water from the termites they eat.<\/p>\n

They are officially listed as endangered<\/a> by the IUCN, due to their limited population and ongoing threats such as habitat loss and predation.<\/p>\n

Though the numbats used to be found in the wild across the entire country, they are now restricted to isolated pockets of WA\u2019s south-west.<\/p>\n

Two natural populations remain: one at Dryandra Woodlands near Narrogin and the other at Perup Nature Reserve near Manjimup, according to The Numbat project.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth Zoo has shared a very cute video revealing the unique way which numbats rear their young, causing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1313,64,63,75,44,46,128,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-70113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-perth","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}