Ayla was brought to her name sake by a friend unfortunate enough to have hit a red neck female wallaby on the road, he stopped and retrieved this little female joey. Ayla would dearly have loved to care for the joey, but after explaining what is involved and the importance of Joey being cared for by experienced wildlife carers, Ayla agreed to let Ayla the joey come in to care .I named the joey after Ayla, as it is partly due to her that the joey now has a good chance of survival and return to the wild.

 

I can not stress enough the importance of native animals specially Marsupials being brought up and cared for by experienced carers, they are so unlike any domestic animals we may have cared for, their needs are totally different, as is their housing requirements. Sure we have all heard from people, oh we had a kangaroo when I was a child, some survived, most did not. Some ended up as pets with the dogs, others escaped, usually to meet an unfortunate fate as they would have no idea of how to survive in the wild.

Just recently I was told a story by someone that had indeed had a kangaroo as a pet not all that long ago. It was taken in by a family after the mother was killed on the highway, the family did care for it, and sure it survived living with the other domestic animals in the yard. As far as the kangaroo was concerned it was part of the family. When it was about 2years old, the family had some problems, the kangaroo wanted to play, now being a rather large pet, it was no longer easy to play with, injuries were common for the family, and they decided to do the best thing for their kangaroo, give it to someone on a farm, lots of room, other kangaroos to play with, rather then the family.

At first all seemed fine, the kangaroo seemed happy enough, but after 3 weeks it was limping, seemed depressed, and a few days later it was unable to move at all. The vet was called, no injuries or broken bones to be found. The kangaroo died shortly after.

Why did this happen? The kangaroo was healthy, it was now in a situation that should have been absolutely perfect for it, and yet it died.

The reason is very simple. It fretted itself to death, it had lost the only family it knew, it had been abandoned in its eyes, it did not know it was a kangaroo, it had no idea of how to interact with its fellow kangaroos, and it did not know what to eat.

This is unfortunately very often the outcome of bringing up a kangaroo or wallaby in a domestic environment, they are very sweet when young, but come sexual maturity, nature calls they only know the family or person that has brought them up, and trouble is not far away.

Another major problem is recognising the signs of stress in these animals,as said many times before stress kills native Australian animals, by the time you can actually see stress in the animal it is usually too late. Carers are trained in how to recognise stress well before it shows to someone unfamiliar with these animals, and we can take action before it becomes a major problem, also food is specialised, they can not live on a diet normal to domestic pets, formula is vitally important, how much and what to feed them is equally important. The only responsible thing to do if you really care for the animal you may have found is to call a care organisation immediately, get the animal in to care, and you will have saved not only yourself a lot of heartache, but most likely the animal as well.

Now back to Ayla our little orphan.

Ayla is seen here in the nursery pen, she was just over 1 kilo when she came in to care, she was in shock when she arrived as most orphans are after being in an accident, then the realisation that mum is gone, it all takes its toll on such a small animal, she also had a slight injury to her head, she spent just over a week getting used to her new environment, sleeping in her pouch, only being handled at feed time, slowly gaining trust in the fact that she would not be eaten ( can you imagine being picked up by King Kong, he tells you you will be just fine, would you believe him) then she was put outside in the nursery pen, still in her pouch, as she will spend a long time yet in the security of the pouch.

 

She is seen in these pictures a month after coming in to care, now quite happy in her new environment, interaction with other wallabies, knowing she is safe, her substitute pouch always within reach.

Thank you to Ayla for caring enough to give this animal the best chance at life, and a return to the wild when she is old enough to fend for herself in about 5-6 months time.

Ayla is now almost ready for release, she is currently in the pre-release pen with other wallabies. Here they will spend some time getting used to life in the wild, meeting the wild population through the fence. When released they will know their wild mates, making release a lot less stressful for them.

Taking each step slowly, gives our orphans a chance to adapt, so important for their long term survival as wild animals.