You might not bat an eye if you found a wombat perched on a tree trump in Australia. But if the tree stump is in the middle of a lake, a team effort (and a boat) will be required to rescue it.
A wombat was saved by wildlife carer Kylee Donkers, the owner of Dutch Thunder Wildlife Shelter in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria.
"Can't say life as a wildlife rescuer isn't interesting!!!" wrote Dutch Thunder Wildlife Shelter in a Facebook post, sharing a video of the rescue.
"Today while out on a rescue I received a call from a lady whose mother was out fishing with her grandsons and had come across a wombat that was stranded on a stump in the middle of Lake Mulwala."
Wombats are short, stumpy marsupials native to Australia. They tend to grow to lengths of 40 inches long, weighing between 44 and 77 pounds.
Donkers met one of the people who had spotted the wombat on the lake, who took her out to investigate.
"Thinking to myself that wombats can be extremely vicious and unpredictable, I wasn't overly comfortable about tackling it from a Jet Ski, so I made a couple of quick phone calls and an awesome local business owner named Jack from Lake Mulwala Sportfishing Charters agreed to meet me at the boat ramp and take me out to the location in his boat, which I felt was a much safer option," she wrote in the Facebook post.
They found the wombat perched on a tree stump, shivering with cold.
"Sure enough as we got closer to the spot you could see the poor, cold, scared wombat, stranded."
Wombats are famous for their cube-shaped feces, but not for their swimming ability., However, according to the Wombat Information Center, while they do not climb trees like their koala cousins, they are good swimmers.
As seen in the video, Donkers slowly clambered onto the stump and gently placed a bag over the wombat.
"Lucky for us, the wombat was so weak from its experience, it didn't put up a fight, it was happy to be bagged and pulled aboard the boat," she wrote.
The wombat was not majorly injured, just tired, cold and scared. She had some minor cuts on her feet, Donkers told ABC News Australia, and she was very thin as if she hadn't eaten for a few days.
Donkers told ABC News that she suspects the wombat had been chased into the lake by a dog and had swum to the stump for safety.
"I don't think the wombat made the choice to go into the water," she said. "I asked her on the trip home how she ended up there but unfortunately she couldn't answer me."
Donkers took her back to the wildlife center to take care of her until she was ready to be released.
"She is now safe back at the shelter where she will receive the best of care and hopefully she will be released in the near future. A huge thanks to Barb and her grandsons Jack and Archie who actually spotted the wombat and also to Jack and Rachael from Lake Mulwala Sportfishing Charters for assisting in the rescue," Donkers concluded in the Facebook post.
"A great team effort and a wonderful outcome, locals supporting locals!!!"
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Jess Thomson is a Newsweek Science Reporter based in London UK. Her focus is reporting on science, technology and healthcare. ... Read more
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