There’s a New Star Shining at Majestic Meadows – Or Are There Two?
There’s something magical about staring into the stars above and closing your eyes and repeating the words “Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight.” For a moment in time…everything seems possible. That’s how the name for one of our newest additions came about.
Introducing Starlight… Starlight is a female wallaby who is now sharing living space with her cousins, Lily, and Poppy, our two red kangaroos. Both kangaroos and wallabies are marsupials, meaning they carry their young around in a pouch. The difference between them is mostly size. Wallabies typically stand 2 ½ to 3 feet tall and weigh between 30 and 40 pounds whereas female kangaroos are typically 3 ½ feet tall and 75 to 100 pounds. Wallabies also have a shorter lifespan than kangaroos living on average between 11 to 14 years whereas kangaroos can live up to 20 to 25 years. Wallabies (and kangaroos) are considered crepuscular creatures which just means they are most active at dawn and dusk. They tend to sleep at night and lay low during midday which is why you will often find them lazily lounging around their area during the days here. This differs from animals that are nocturnal or diurnal. Nocturnal refers to animals that are most active at night and sleep during the day. Diurnal refers to animals that are most active during the day and sleep at night.
Starlight is our first, and only, albino wallaby. Albino wallabies have no skin pigmentation, typically have red eyes, and are believed to be very rare. Because albino wallabies are sensitive to sunlight and prone to cancer because of that sensitivity, living in the wild, so to speak, negatively impacts their survival rate. Here on the farm, she will be able to get shade any time she pleases, and we are hopeful she will have a long happy life here. Wallabies are social and curious, but they will run away if approached too quickly or loudly so as with all our animals here on the farm, we ask all visitors to approach them slowly and gently so that they continue to feel safe and secure in their home here.
Starlight is sweet, curious, active and is already making LOTS of friends on the farm. She is blossoming here in personality and loving her new home and is a delightful addition to the farm family.
And because we like to make sure the animals are healthy AND happy, we decided to make sure Starlight would have one of her own to play with, so we would like to also introduce Juno, meaning queen of the heavens, and oh what a lovely little queen she is. Juno is a light brown, black, gray, and white in color wallaby. She is a few months younger than Starlight so she is still spending lots of time with us indoors at night and then can be seen poking in and out of her fleece pouch when outdoors as we introduce her slowly to her new life and family on the farm. She is incredibly sweet, very social and I have no doubt at all she will be loved and adored by everyone who meets her.
A wish is a dream your heart makes…I would say these two are definitely a wish, a dream, my heart made.
