Rehabilitating wildlife is a never-ending source of education The records from our WILVOS 5441 6200 Hotline number are a great source of information.
This week one of our carers received little twin swamp wallaby joeys into care. They are ‘pinkies’, which we call furless marsupials that still have the soft pink skin that feels like satin. It is extremely rare to see twin joeys, and I have never seen twin ‘swampies’ before. Just one is incredibly cute! They have settled well. Looking blue at the moment the eyes will soon be those beautiful big black eyes, and the skin will darken and fur will begin to grow.
Swamp wallabies soon grow into rambunctious, energetic and mischievous ‘toddlers’. They are a joy to rehabilitate and watch them developing their ‘wild’ instincts. Soon after just a kilogram in weight, they love to be outside for most of the day and night, hiding in the vegetation, in between sporadic bursts of energy, or diving back into their hanging pouches for a nap. By the time they reach two kilograms they just demand attention, usually four times a day, for their six-hourly bottle. The remainder of the time is spent browsing. Besides the usual grass and leaves, they love to eat all the weeds that sometimes threaten to take over my yard. With swamp wallabies in care, I have a very low maintenance yard. They earn their bottles of milk formula!
Maybe macropods feel they have to double their breeding capacity! The numbers hit by cars and killed by dogs are pretty devastating. The increasing awareness of the plight of our precious wildlife means that people do now stop and check pouches and call our Hotline if there is a joey. Because the young animals are very firmly attached to the mother’s teat, they cannot be just be removed from the pouch. It has to be carefully done or irreparable damage is done to the little joey.
WILVOS are very happy to receive that Hotline call for help.
Donna Brennan Wildlife Volunteers Assoc Inc (WILVOS) PO Box 4805 Sunshine Coast Mail Centre Q 4560 PH 5441 6200 www.wilvos.org.au