Cypress Gardens is home to over 40 rides, a historical botanical garden, a water park, and animal exhibits featuring over 300 feathery, scaly, and furry friends such as alligators, birds, butterflies, and a jaguar. And now, it’s become the home of one new resident, an albino baby wallaby named Mahina. The park’s newest and cutest star, Mahina is now available for viewing at Cypress Gardens on Saturdays and Sundays at the Animal Trax Outpost Shop from 1:15 pm until 1:35 pm.

Guests can come and see the furry white wallaby and her keeper, take pictures with her, and even pet her (most likely on the tail area). For safety reasons, guests will not be able to hold her.

Mahina is the second albino wallaby born at Cypress Gardens. She emerged from her mother’s pouch on April 19th, a few months sooner than expected, and is still being raised by the animal care staff. Normally, joeys (baby wallabies) stay in their mother’s pouches for seven to eight months, but Mahina was only in her mother’s pouch for four months. Despite this, the Animal Care staff state that nothing is wrong with Mahina and that premature birth sometimes happens in nature with no clear explanation why.

Found primarily in Australia and neighboring islands, wallabies possess excellent hearing and sense of smell, though wallaby vision is thought to be quite poor. Though wallabies are typically small to medium-sized, the largest can reach 6 feet. Wallabies use their large, prominent tail for balance when hopping or grazing, and they survive on a diet of grass and the shoots of young plants. While albino wallabies like Mahina are fairly common in captivity, the odds of an albino being born in the wild are extremely rare – about 1 in 10,000.

All of the Orlando area had a chance to name newborn Mahina as part of a contest that ran from June 11th through June 30th. Over 400 entries were submitted; some of the names that were considered were Phoebe, Aurora, Mayhem, Aoraki (meaning cloud piercer), Paralla (Aborigine for “the moon”), Mindee, and Nola (meaning fair/white shoulder in Irish). However, the Marketing and Animal Care departments decided upon Mahina as the winning name, which was submitted by Carol Wolfe of Winter Garden. The name means “moon” in Hawaiian.

Be sure to head down to Cypress Garden to see this adorable addition to the park! Best yet, it won’t cost you too much – simply score your discount Cypress Garden tickets at OrlandoFunTickets.com to get in on all the hopping good fun.