For six months Australian Reptile Park’s Mammals Keeper Seleena De Gelder had her hands full hand-raising a tiny yellow-footed rock-wallaby, affectionately named Matilda.
Now the Park is excited to announce that Matilda is ready to be reunited with her mother Kelly, and the rest of the yellow-footed rock-wallaby mob at the Australian Reptile Park.
Earlier in May, keepers came to Matilda’s aid after a health check of the yellow-footed rock wallaby mob revealed that Kelly, one of the females, was pawing at her pouch.
Knowing that she was carrying a beautiful young female joey, the team was quick to undergo a check and discovered that her pouch had prolapsed, meaning that she could no longer carry her little joey.
Keeper De Gelder took on the task of hand-raising the wallaby, ensuring her healthy growth progress and surpassing every milestone she would have achieved if raised naturally in her mother’s pouch.
With taking on this role, she had the chance to name the joey and decided to name the little fighter Matilda, in honour of her favourite soccer team, the Matildas.
Since her time with the adorable joey, De Gelder has built a special bond with Matilda.
“This experience has been nothing but rewarding,” she said.
“She’s grown significantly over the past six months and even though I’m excited to see her back with the rest of the mob and her mum, I’ll miss her a lot – it’s a bittersweet day for me, that’s for sure.”
To safely reunite the joey with the rest of the rock-wallabies at the Park, she gradually introduced Matilda to the mob which involved having the other wallabies see and smell Matilda from a distance in a pouch and eventually a playpen, until Matilda herself was comfortable enough to explore her surroundings on her own.
“Once I let her go, she was a little unsure at first, but I stayed next to her for reassurance,” De Gelder said.
“Within no time at all, she was exploring everywhere, even jumping right up to the top of the rocks – I was so proud.
“Then I saw Kelly come over and say hello.
“To see the two of them back together again has made all the sleepless nights worth it,”.
The timing could not be more perfect as De Gelder also took on the role of surrogate mother to a wombat joey Wilbur in October.
Although manageable, she certainly has had her hands full caring for the adorable pair of joeys in additional to the 200 plus animals in her care in the mammals and birds department at the Australian Reptile Park.
Yellow-footed rock-wallabies were once found throughout NSW, Queensland and South Australia.
However, they have now disappeared from NSW and Queensland with their numbers in the wild estimated at being as little as 5,000.
Their decline is attributed to intense hunting in the 1800s and early 1900s for their pelts and in recent times, the introduction of feral pests such at the fox and cat.