Facilitating Interactive Exhibits – Wallaby Walkthrough Wallaby Walkthrough Protocols: (Goal) To interpret educational material regarding the exhibit and its animals. In addition, to insure the safety of the animals & and all visitors in exhibit area.

1. When opening the Wallaby Walk-through, please do the following: a. Make sure station has a radio at the start of the day. This radio stays at the exhibit throughout the day. b. Clean the visitor walk space of any fecal matter with the provided broom and scoop. c. Bring out of the hut any Biofacts pertinent to the educational content being presented to provide a hands-on and educational experience for visitors during anytime (especially when Wallabies are not active).

2. When you have a partner with you facilitating the exhibit, it is best to divide up and facilitate the two ends of the exhibit verses standing near each other. This allows for better customer service, interpretation of the animals in the exhibit, and maintain safety protocols of touching and double door system.

3. The exhibit is not one way. Visitors are free to enter either end of the exhibit and leave either end.

4. DO NOT place/hook radio onto bench or fence areas in the exhibit! Always have the radio clipped to your pants.

5. When working the Wallaby exhibit, it is your responsibility to make sure that at least one of the gates at each end is closed at all times. Please do not take this to mean that you must open the gate for visitors entering and exiting. You can simply tell people to make sure the gate behind them is closed before they open the next, as there are free-roaming animals in the exhibit. Once the animals are comfortable in their exhibit, they do tend to walk around on the pavement.

6. It is also your responsibility to ensure the safety of the wallabies at all times. In certain situations, this may mean that you will need to encourage a wallaby to move away from the gates by gently pushing it, only if it is blocking the entry or exit.

7. In case of a wallaby escape, please use the animal escape (Code 1) procedures that you have been taught immediately. Wallabies move very quickly!! You role is to keep visual contact with the animal, if possible, but do not approach it.

8. All visitors must stay behind the split rail fence, they are not allowed to go up the hill. You can explain to visitors that it is an “anti-person” fence, and it keeps us out of the wallaby’s personal space. If they wish to approach visitors, the wallabies have the ability to go underneath the fence and come down on the pavement. If while working this area you catch a person (typically a young child) slipping under the fence, please first ask them to come back down out of the area. If they do not immediately come down after your instruction, you are authorized to open the fence’s gate and retrieve the person.

9. Occasionally the flowering trees in the exhibit loose leaves or berries. Do not encourage visitors to feed the wallabies the leaves/berries. Wallabies will find those extra “treats” on their own, but we do not allow active feeding of the animals.

10. If there is a bench on the pavement area – that is not for zoo staff or volunteers to sit on. All staff or volunteers facilitating the exhibit are expected to be standing at all times to convey great customer service. The bench is for visitors to use as a “pit stop” to rest and watch the wallabies.

11. If a wallaby does come down on the pavement, visitors are welcome to slowly approach it and touch it gently down its back. We do not encourage touching on the head, face, feet, or tail area. The tail especially is very sensitive, and the wallabies sometimes get startled if a visitor touches/grabs at the tail. It is best to have one 1-2 people touching at once, and to NOT corner a wallaby. Instruct visitors to not surround a wallaby but rather give it an escape path for when it is done interacting with visitors.

12. When closing the Wallaby Walk-Through, please do the following: a. Do NOT leave exhibit area until a keeper staff comes to close down & lock up space. Do not radio a keeper staff unless it gets to 6:15 PM and you are still not yet relieved. b. Please return radio to the office at the end of the day once the zoo is closed. Make sure to place radio on charger, turned off, and charging (red light on).

Exhibit Animal Information: Bennett’s Wallabies Relatives: There are 30 different types of wallabies. The Bennett's Wallaby is the Tasmanian subspecies. Wallabies are considered small to medium-sized kangaroos.

Appearance: Bennett's Wallabies are distinguished by their black nose and paws, white stripe on the upper lip, and grizzled medium grey coat with a reddish wash across the shoulders. They are smaller than the mainland species of wallabies (as island species nearly always are).

General Wallaby Info: The soft, woolly fur can be gray, brown, red or almost black. The belly is lighter. They have short arms with clawed fingers, strong, legs, and long four-toed feet with claws. They can hop and jump with their powerful legs. Wallabies range in size from the size of a rabbit to almost 6 ft (1.8 m) long.

Males: Males (called Boomers) are larger, reach maturity at 2 years

Females: Females (called Fliers) have a pouch in which the young live and drink milk. Females mature at 9 months of age.

Size: Body 36-40" long, tail 27-29"; 28-40 lb.

Range: Bennett’s wallabies can be found only on the small island of Tasmania, south of mainland Australia

Habitat: Flat grasslands, mobs typically have large habitat ranges.

Feeding: Like most macropods, the Bennett’s Wallaby live in groups called mobs. They feed at night and, particularly on dull days, in the late afternoon, generally grazing on grass and herbs close to forest shelter. These herbivores (plant-eaters) eat grass, leaves, and roots (here we also feed them carrots and sweet potatoes). They swallow their food without chewing it and later regurgitate a cud and chew it. They need very little water; they can go for months without drinking, and they dig their own water wells.

Breeding: Interestingly, captive animals maintain their breeding schedules; Tasmanian females that become pregnant out of their normal season delaying birth until summer, which can be anything up to eight months later. Wallabies breed in the Australian late summer, mostly between February and April. For the Bennett's Wallaby births occur during late summer to early autumn. The gestation period is about 30 days. Pouch life is about 280 days and weaning occurs at 12-17 months. Babies are called Joeys. The tiny newborn Joey climbs out of the birth canal up into the pouch unassisted, using little underdeveloped arms and begins to suckle. At this time the Joey looks like a tiny pink jelly bean, with nothing really developed. While in the pouch and suckling, the Joey’s outer appearance and features grow and develop (fur, arms, legs, tail, ears, etc.) The little pink head peeks out of the pouch at about 150 days.

Predators: Dingos (wild Australian dogs), domestic dogs, humans (for consumption or by accident by automobile).