One of the most adorable residents at the Australian Reptile Park has celebrated a milestone.
Wilbur the wombat joey celebrated his first birthday recently with his zookeeper mum, Seleena de Gelder.
To make the day extra special, the ‘not so tiny’ wombat joey was given his very own ‘smash cake’ made of his favourite treats: carrots, a fresh bunch of grass, sweet potato chunks and juicy corn cob.
Wilbur speedily ripped into the cake before playing chase with de Gelder.
“This day is special not just for Wilbur, but for myself and the team,” de Gelder said.
“When we first received Wilbur, we weren’t sure if he’d make it.
“But since his arrival back in September last year, he’s grown in leaps and bounds and has become quite the cheeky wombat.”
Wilbur came into the care of the Park in late September 2023 when a passerby had discovered a wombat had been hit by a car.
Seeing fluttering movements from the pouch, the rescuer found the five-month-old baby wombat inside and quickly took it to the Park to be cared for.
“While I absolutely love that I have successfully hand-raised, I wish I wasn’t playing the role as his surrogate mother and that he would still be with his real mother,” de Gelder said.
“Cars are one of the biggest threats to our wildlife, and with the school holidays here, we’re urging people to slow down and take a little more care when driving.”
Wilbur will remain at the award-winning wildlife sanctuary until he is ready to be independent.
Once it is decided if he is healthy and strong enough, he will begin his transition training to be released back into the wild.
What a beautiful story about Wilbur the wombat,and how he has such a good life now due to the dedicated wildlife carers that work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to help and care for our injured animals.Thank you to all the people all throughout Australia, who take care of our wildlife and hopefully most of them are well enough to be able to return to their natural habitat.