Red-neck Joey Rescue April 2015

I was phoned early one morning by a friend who lives not to far away from us, who had noticed a Wallaby dead on the side of the road on his way to work early that morning. He had stopped to check it and could hear noises coming from the pouch and rang me to come and have a look. I went straight away, finding a female Red-necked Wallaby dead in the grass on the rural road edge, and two pink legs sticking out of her pouch and some very unhappy noises coming from within the pouch.

I discovered an un-furred male joey inside, that was alive and very cold.  The wallaby didn't seem to have any broken limbs or obvious injuries besides bruising.  I put it immediately into a warm flanelette pouch and rushed it straight to my local wildlife carer friend.  It was immediately given fluids and put into a heated padded pouch.  The wallaby was assessed and another expert kangaroo carer was phoned.  The little guy nick-named "Ben" after the man who found him, was passed onto the expert kangaroo carer and went onto make a full recovery despite his bruising and rough start to life. He was hand raised with other wallabies and will be released in a group together.

Remember always to check the pouches of wildlife if you come across or should accidently hit an animal on the road.  Always check pouches of kangaroos, wallabies, possums, echidnas, bandicoots etc and should you find a young inside the pouch, contact a local wildlife carer immediately or phone the RSPCA Wildlife Help Line on 1300 ANIMAL to be put in touch with someone in your area.

J.G.

Deceased Female Red-Necked Wallaby with young in pouch.

Semi-emerged Red-necked Wallaby Joey in pouch of death mother. 

The gorgeous but cold and bruised male joey once I removed him from the pouch of his dead mother. 

Tucked away in a warm flanalette carers pouch on the way to a carer. 

"Ben" the rescued Red-necked Wallaby Joey receiving fluids for re-hydraton by a local wildlife carer.