When a woman walking near Coombs Pond in Australia recently noticed a strange brown lump floating aimlessly in the muck, the concerned passerby knew she had to get a better look.
On closer inspection, the woman realized the ball of fur was actually a wombat. This was quite a surprise. According to Woofpurnay Veterinary Hospital, wombats don’t like water, and though they can swim, they usually only do so for very short amounts of time.
The woman called for her mom, who quickly arrived with a kayak. Using the boat’s paddle, the passerby’s mom carefully guided the exhausted wombat back to shore.
With the animal safe on land, the women called experts at Wombat Rescue for help.
“A very unusual rescue happened today,” Yolandi Vermaak, president and founder of Wombat Rescue, wrote in a Facebook post about the rescue. “And if not for the intervention of the public, this wombat would have drowned.”
Wombat Rescue volunteers found the waterlogged wombat lying under a bush, covered in grass and twigs. The rescuers gently moved the wombat into a crate and transported him to the rescue for further examination.
Safe at the rescue, the wombat began his slow recovery.
“The first few days [were] hard, as he was very ill, very tired, and just slept,” Vermaak said. “He didn’t eat or drink anything, but that was to be expected. He was transferred to one of our carers a few days later, [where] he had a bigger, but still small, enclosure where we could let him walk around a little, but not too much, so we [didn’t] overexert his lungs. He adapted here really well. He has mental stimulation, things to play with, like a hanging tire — and he loves that tire.”
Though this wombat isn’t out of the woods quite yet, rescuers are hopeful that he’ll make his way back to the wild sometime soon.
“His prospects are looking good,” Vermaak said. “Once we are fully satisfied that he is in the clear, we will release him near where he was found.”