At this stage, only the joey's mouth, front limbs, shoulders and chest muscles are developed … whilst its eyes, ears and many organs remain undifferentiated. In fact, for the first few days of its life the joey has the remarkable ability to absorb oxygen directly through its skin until its heart and lungs are ready for normal breathing. Yet, despite its embryonic state, within moments of birth, this tiny organism makes the seemingly epic journey up to ... and inside ... its mother's specially designed pouch - rather like a permanently attached, centrally-heated handbag. There, it latches firmly to a teat and concentrates all its efforts on growth!

Marsupials evolved as a distinct subclass of mammal around 120 million years ago, in North America. At this time, the world's landmasses were joined to form only two super-continents … Laurasia and Gondwana. Laurasia was comprised of North America, Europe and Asia … whilst Gondwana consisted of South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Antarctica and Australia. These two super-continents were linked by a chain of islands near the equator.

Australia turned out to be the perfect place for Marsupials. With their weird and wonderful mode of reproduction, they were able to adapt swiftly to Australia's unpredictable conditions, capitalizing on the good times or economizing energy expenditure in times of hardship. Modern marsupials are extremely efficient mammals, having evolved a whole range of characteristics to cope in the harsh Australian environment. Today, they have slow metabolisms, allowing them to survive on poor diets; and unique gut recycling mechanisms to squeeze every ounce of nutrition out of each and

every meal; and to maximise water absorption (to survive in arid areas and through drought).

Australia has become the centre of Marsupial diversification, supporting over 150 species of almost every size, shape and habit imaginable. South America is still home to 76 species of Marsupial … but these are all varieties of possum, which hardly compares with the great diversity of Marsupials found in

Occasionally, however, something a little more unusual comes along, such as Greater and Sugar Gliders, Long Nosed Bandicoots and Antechinuses.

A large percentage of these are orphaned joeys … and depending upon the stage of development at time of rescue, they come in all shapes and sizes. No matter the species of Marsupial, when a joey is born, it weighs less than 1 gram. The largest Marsupial newborn on the face of the earth is the Red Kangaroo, coming into the world at a whopping 0.9g.

Frightening, isn't it?

Considerable time passes before the joey is

ready for the outside world. Even aged 4 months, a baby Kangaroo remains furless, fragile and unable to thermoregulate (maintain its own body temperature). At the equivalent stage of growth, a placental baby would be still inside its mothers' womb.

Therefore, the care of orphaned Marsupials is very specialized. Supporting joeys emotionally is equally as important as replicating the physical side of their natural upbringing. Marsupial young appear to have a far stronger emotional attachment to their mothers than do their placental counterparts, due perhaps to the one-on-one nature of life in the pouch.