Sunday 13 February 2011

The Life and Death of Baby Banjo


It was around 6pm, broad daylight, and would be for another three hours this time of year in Tassie, when we spotted a dead wallaby by the side of the road. Trev and both leaned forward at the same moment and yelled,
'Is that a rat?'
But we both agreed it might have been a baby wallaby. We did one of those dangerous manoeuvers not destined to help you make friends with your local copper and went back for a look. Sure enough it was a wallaby, she was out of the pouch and trying desperately to get back in.




Trev swooped her up and we bought it home and rang our local wildlife carer. But alas, not available for anything but advice. Despite feeding her recommended amounts of the right kind of food and keeping her warm and quiet she developed diarrhoea and died a couple of days later. It was only a slim chance she made it, but we had to give her that.

2 comments:

Jayne said...

Aww that's very sad. She looks like a little pademelon. My parents look after orphaned wildlife, and we've raised quite a few wallabies over the years (http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyesdreamsloves/5443708342/). Unfortunately some just don't pull through despite your best efforts. Good on you for collecting her in the first place.

nfmgirl said...

Yes, good for you for trying. That's the best that we can do! I've helped numerous injured wildlife over the years here in the states, and my mother just took a baby squirrel into the rehabilitator this morning. You do what you can!