Alone and afraid, wallaby joey Riley clings to the body of his dead mum at the side of a road: This is the moving story of his rescue
- Wallaby joey found clinging to its dead mum
- Was lucky to have survived overnight during cold weather
A harrowing image has emerged of an orphaned baby wallaby clinging to its dead mother’s fur in freezing temperatures after she was struck down by a vehicle.
Hamilton Wildlife Centre owner Shelley Burrowes came across the heartbreaking discovery while driving along a busy road near Frances in South Australia on Tuesday morning.
She spotted the joey, which had clung to its mother’s fur overnight in the cold and wet weather, and stopped her car to pick it up to transport it to a nearby rehabilitation centre.
‘As I approached him, he was clinging into his mother’s fear and he was absolutely terrified,’ Ms Burrowes told Daily Mail Australia.
‘And as I stepped right up next to him, he looked up at me and he just gave this a really weak cheater noise, which they do when they’re, they’re calling out for help to their mum.’
‘It was just the saddest sight and broke my heart.’
A wallaby joey has been found by an owner of a wildlife centre lucky to be alive after it clung to its dead mother’s fur during a cold and wet night after it was struck by a vehicle
The joey has since been named Riley.
Hewas lucky to have been found by Ms Burrowes, who drives with pouches in her car to carry orphaned joeys.
‘I kept him up my cardigan like I folded it (the pouch) across so he was nice and snug and let my body heat warm him up for the rest of the drive,’ Ms Burrowes said.
‘I got him to my friends at Bordertown and he was warmed up so then I assessed him for any injuries and he didn’t appear to be injured.
‘So then he got put into a really really nice warm hanging back and he got placed near the fire so he could keep warming up and settling in for a little bit.’
After a night of feeding and some much needed TLC, Riley was already on the mend and began hopping around.
He has since been taken to a carer in South Australia to live with an orphaned kangaroo joey to ‘be friends with’.
Riley the joey was lucky to have been found by the wildlife centre owner, Shelley Burrowes, who had pouches to place the joey into to warm up in
A majority of animals that come into Ms Burrowes’ care have either been injured or orphaned by collisions with vehicles.
’90 per cent of orphans that we get in from kangaroos, wallabies and possums are from collisions, majority of bed cases our calculations as well,’ Ms Burrowes said.
‘Car collisions are the number one reason that we get animals into care.’
She pleaded with drivers to take care on rural roads when animals are nearby, as they can unpredictably jump onto the road.
‘Just being more aware of the surroundings when you’re traveling and if you do see something, just tap your foot on the brake a little bit slow down a little bit as you go past,’ Ms Burrowes said.
‘You never know when something is going to jump out in front of you even if it looks like it’s happily sitting there.
‘They can jump out right at the last second all beds can take off and fly across the road at the last second.’
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