Volunteers caring for more orphaned joeys
SYDNEY: Wearing pink surgical gloves, animal carer Christie Jarrett gently wraps the foot of an orphaned 7monthold kangaroo with surgical tape at a facility set up at her rural home near the Australian city of Bathurst in New South Wales.
Attacked by crows after losing his mother, the joey, an eastern grey named Andy, now stays in a cloth pouch in Jarrett’s home, where he will remain until he is strong enough to be released back into the plains.
‘‘He had a bit of surgery and he’s doing really well now,’’ said Jarrett, a longterm volunteer with the country’s largest wildlife rescue organisation, NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service.
It has been a horror few years for Australian wildlife in the country’s east, after a prolonged drought and bushfires decimated native animals’ habitats.
The kangaroo population in the state of NSW, which was at the heart of a drought that only subsided last year, is estimated to have fallen 25% from 14 million in 2019 to 10.5 million in 2020, according to a state survey released this week.
Many of the baby kangaroos were orphaned because their mothers had been struck by cars or trucks.