Rehabilitate Wallabies & Other Native Wildlife

We have hand raised, rehabilitated and released many wallabies over the years our rehabilitation facility has been operating. For many years we have been microchipping them before release so if any are found dead or injured we can check if they have a microchip and if they were one of the ones we released. 

We have not had many results on our microchipped ones so in conjunction with Charles Sturt University and Sydney Wildlife Rescue we have managed to organize a radio collaring study on the release of our hand raised wallabies. 

Dr Joanne from the university did many months of research with us to have the right light weight collars made, these had to have GPS signals as well as VHS due to the rough terrain that the wallabies usually live in. They also have a signal sent to us if the wallaby is inactive for 4 hours so we can then go and check if that wallaby needs help. These collars are thousands of dollars each and were specially made for this project.

One Saturday when all the collars had arrived and been calibrated a team of 4 volunteer vets, Sydney Wildlife members and an expert in fitting tracking collars assembled in the SWR Mobile Care Unit to capture, weigh, vet check, measure, ear tag, take bloods, poo and hair samples and then fit the light weight radio collars.

This was all done quickly and efficiently by the vet team then the wallabies were put back into the Rehabilitation facility where they stayed for a few more days to make sure that there were no issues with the collars.

After a few days of monitoring the wallabies were caught again and released very close to the area they were found.

They have now been back out in the wild for 2 months and they all seem to be very healthy and interestingly have not dispersed far from the release site. It may be that this site has all their requirements so why move!

 Only time, observation and science will tell us more about these beautiful animals that can sometimes be in our care for up to 2 years before release. We want to learn so we can do more to ensure their survival once released from our rehabilitation facility back to their natural habitat.

A Curly Tail 

Some patients love to challenge our volunteer vets…! Thankfully, Curly’s cuteness made up for the fact that his problem was a ‘curly’ one 

His story started out like so many other wallaby joeys. Enjoying life in his mother’s pouch, drinking milk, popping his head out for a look at his wonderful new world. But tragedy struck when a vehicle hit his Mum and he was instantly orphaned. A rescuer was on the scene soon afterwards to extract the traumatised little man from his Mum’s pouch. As she was checking him over, she noticed that his tail was bent at 90° which was definitely going to be a big problem for a small wallaby - particularly a male wallaby - later down the track. 

Little Curly was taken to Mona Vale Veterinary Hospital for radiographs and examined. It appeared that the tail deformity was a result of a congenital birth defect, rather than trauma-induced! But it still needed to be corrected. 

Little Curly was referred to Sydney Wildlife's Mobile Care Unit and he has become quite the regular! Dr Reiner and Dr Bryn undertook the procedure to realign his tail so that he would be able to use it as nature intended. 

The procedure was tricky as the alignment needed to be achieved without affecting nerves, ligaments and tendons. The tail was splinted to ensure that it stays in alignment as he grows. 

Male wallabies lean back on their tails during combat to free up their back legs for kicking their opponent. Their tails also serve as a way to balance them out during vigorous hopping.

Little Curly came back every week with his amazing carer, Justine, for a re-check and he has been getting very adept at doing high-speed manoeuvres with a bandaged tail! After Dr Bryn removed the splint and bandages altogether he is adjusting to life without his “safety crutch”.

Now in our Rehabilitation Facility he hoping confidently, growing up to be a big, strong wallaby with a fully-functional tail.

He will stay in the facilty until he is ready for release. 

We treat and rehabilitate native wildlife free of charge. If you would like to help us, please visit www.sydneywildlife.org.au