CHIANG MAI, 24 May 2012 (NNT) – The Chiang Mai Zoo has introduced a new baby koala, who has just come out of her mother’s pouch.

The Chiang Mai Zoo has announced that the female 7-month old baby koala appeared outside of her mother’s pouch for the first time earlier this week. The breeding came naturally between a four-year-old Chiang Muan and a male koala named Fula. The baby was born in November.

With the new addition, Chiang Mai Zoo now has 10 koalas. It is also preparing to arrange a naming competition for the baby koala.

After leaving her mother’s pouch, the koala will not go back in again; it will start eating eucalyptus leaves and learn how to climb trees.

The Chiang Mai Zoo has exchanged with Australia’s Taronga Zoo Thai elephants for 2 pairs of koalas in 2006. Koala is a marsupial, or an animal with a pouch in which baby koalas, called joeys, are raised.

Read more: NNT