Two orphaned joeys will be hopping around the Christmas tree this year after arriving in the care of keepers at Wild Life Sydney Zoo.
The seven-month-old kangaroos, Dot and Matilda, shared a bottle feed and a cuddle with their surrogate mum and senior zoo keeper Caroline Monro at the Darling Harbour attraction on Friday morning.
Without milk from their marsupial mums, the zoo newbies each guzzle down four bottles of Wombaroo - a baby formula for Kangaroos - a day and have just started snacking on grass and straw.
"They both currently weigh just over four kilograms each, an optimal weight for joeys their age," Ms Monro said.
"Dot is definitely the cheekier one whereas Matilda is more reserved and loves a good chest scratch."
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The natives of Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia, are a sub-species of the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and have thicker and darker fur than their mainland counterparts.
They are the first of their sub-species to arrive at the zoo and will be bouncing around the Kangaroo Walkabout exhibit once they are big enough.
