{"id":244794,"date":"2026-04-24T14:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244794\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T14:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:22:08","slug":"meet-the-baby-koala-hiding-in-its-moms-pouch-at-a-florida-zoos-new-outback-habitat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244794\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the baby koala hiding in its mom’s pouch at a Florida zoo’s new Outback habitat"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. \u2014 A zoo in Florida has two reasons to celebrate \u2014 the first birth of a koala and a newly renovated habitat for the cuddly creatures is opening to the public on Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor the zoo and for us here, it\u2019s the very big deal,\u201d said Amarylis Celestina, who oversees carnivores and koalas at the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society in West Palm Beach, Florida. “We are trying the best that we can to help with a lot of the genetic diversity within the population that we have here in the United States. So that\u2019s why it\u2019s important that we do have a joey and that we were successful this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The joey, born to Ellin and Sydney last fall, remains in its mother’s pouch and has just recently started to become visible to zoo officials.<\/p>\n

They continue to monitor Ellin’s weight, and are providing extra food as she cares for the baby.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the koala population is enjoying a renovated habitat, which include more greenery, new perching for exercising, and solar tubes to bring in more natural light. The changes bring a bit of the Australian outback to the zoo for koalas, which are an endangered species. They are able to move between their climate-controlled indoor exhibit and the expanded outdoor area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new habitat is a milestone for our koalas,\u201d Margo McKnight, the zoo’s CEO and president said in a news release. \u201cThe deliberate design supports the voluntary, cooperative care our zoologists and koalas have developed together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koalas in the U.S. are on loan from the Australian federal government to help with conservation practices. <\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This photo provided by the Palm Beach Zoo Conservation Society Clearance shows a koala named Ellin and her newborn joey in a habitat at the Palm Beach Zoo Conservation Society in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Saturday, April 18, 2026. Credit: AP\/John Towey<\/p>\n

Koalas are generally peaceful, have a calm nature and enjoy a \u201cslow\u201d lifestyle. They like to climb and hop between the trees in the habitat. The renovations are designed to help koalas express their natural behaviors, zoo officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. \u2014 A zoo in Florida has two reasons to celebrate \u2014 the first birth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[556,28,30,29,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-244794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-ap-a-wire","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-wires-bot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}