Adorable Rufous Bettong, Mr Bean, Joins the Family

This adorable orphaned Rufous Bettong is thriving under Ranger Riley's care and is slowly weaning from milk and starting solids

Conservation organisation Aussie Ark is thrilled to announce that the newest member of its family – an adorable Rufous Bettong joey called Mr Bean – is thriving in human care and has a ‘bounce in his step’ as he builds fitness, weans off milk, and bonds with surrogate ‘mum’ Wildlife Ranger Riley Tydeman.

Mr Bean was brought into care late last year after he was tragically thrown from his mother’s pouch in the Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary during the organisation’s annual macropod trapping and health check.

At the time he was just 265 grams and very delicate, and was entirely reliant on his mother’s pouch, milk and protection for survival.

Mr Tydeman was the natural choice as surrogate ‘mum’ having successfully raised a number of macropod joeys before, including Rufous Bettongs. Mr Tydeman nourished the joey on a specialised macropod milk and replicated the mother’s pouch with a cloth pouch to comfort and carry the tiny orphan.

Mr Bean flourished in Mr Tydeman’s care, with home videos recording Mr Bean’s cute interactions with his human parent, including nibbling Mr Tydeman’s hair, sampling his first bits of solid food, and snoozing in his cat bed.

Rufous Bettongs are ancient relatives of the kangaroo, possessing a pouch and bouncing. But unlike the kangaroo, the bettong growls like a bear when agitated, and uses its semi prehensile tail like a monkey to collect leaf litter to build a ‘drey’ or den.

Mr Bean is the first male bettong that Mr Tydeman has raised, and there’s one very noticeable difference.

“The nails on his hind feet are much sharper than his sisters,” Mr Tydeman said. “And the reason for that is that in the wild male bettongs fight for territory and females. They kick out with their hind legs, and their toenails are so sharp they can disembowel one another!”

Mr Tydeman doesn’t think Mr Bean would ever do that as “he’s too much of a sweetie”! But the joey is finding his mogo fast, and will one day join Aussie Ark’s breeding and rewilding program helping save his species from extinction.