Alone and scared, wallaby joey Riley clings to his dead mother’s body on the side of a road: this is the moving story of his rescue
- Wallaby Joey found clinging to his dead mother
- I was lucky to have survived overnight during the cold weather.
A heartbreaking image has emerged of an orphaned baby kangaroo clinging to its dead mother’s fur in sub-zero temperatures after she was struck by a vehicle.
Hamilton Wildlife Center owner Shelley Burrowes came across the heartbreaking discovery while driving on a busy road near Frances in South Australia on Tuesday morning.
He saw the joey, which had attached itself to his mother’s fur overnight in the cold, wet weather, and stopped his car to pick him up for transport to a nearby rehabilitation center.
“When I approached him, he was holding on in fear of his mother and was absolutely terrified,” Ms Burrowes told Daily Mail Australia.
“And when I got closer to him, he looked at me and made a really weak cheating noise, which they do when they’re, they’re asking their mom for help.”
“It was the saddest sight and it broke my heart.”
A wallaby joey was found by a wildlife center owner who was lucky to be alive after it clung to its dead mother’s fur during a cold and wet night after it was hit by a vehicle.
Since then, Joey has been called Riley.
He was lucky to have been found by Mrs Burrowes, who drives around with bags in her car to take orphaned Joeys.
“I kept it in my cardigan as if I had folded it (the bag) so it was snug and comfortable and let my body heat warm it for the rest of the trip,” said Ms Burrowes.
“I took him to my friends in Bordertown and they warmed him up so I evaluated him for injuries and he didn’t appear to be hurt.
“So they put him in a really nice, warm place and put him near the fire so he could continue to warm up and settle down a bit.”
After a night of feeding and some much-needed cuddling, Riley was already on the mend and began to hop.
He has since been taken to a keeper in South Australia to live with an orphaned joey kangaroo to ‘be friends’.
Riley the joey was lucky enough to have been found by the owner of the wildlife center, Shelley Burrowes, who had bags to place the joey in to warm up in
Most of the animals that come into the care of Ms. Burrowes have been injured or orphaned by collisions with vehicles.
“90 per cent of the orphans we have from kangaroos, kangaroos and possums are from collisions, most of the bed covers are also our estimates,” said Ms Burrowes.
“Car crashes are the number one reason we care for animals.”
He pleaded with drivers to be careful on country roads when animals are nearby, as they can unpredictably jump onto the road.
“Just being more aware of your surroundings when you’re riding and if you see something, just tap your foot on the brake a little bit, slow down a little bit as you go,” said Ms Burrowes.
‘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 at the last second, all the beds can take off and cross the street at the last second.”
