Baby Wombat Cared By Humans

Meet orphaned Karmann, the waving wombat nursed back to health by humans

Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:26 AM on 03rd April 2010

She may only have a tiny heart - but luckily for Karmann the orphaned wombat, she was rescued by an animal lover with a large one.

The helpless little creature owes her life to a driver who rescued her from the pouch of her dying mother, who had been run over in East Gippsland, Australia in early March.

Karmann was rushed to the Warrandyte Wildlife Shelter in Melbourne, where she is to spend the next three months of her life being cared for in their state-of-the- art intensive care unit.

Hi Karmann! The tiny baby wombat appears to give a wave for the camera as she nestles in the palm of a veterinarian' s hand at the Warrandyte Wildlife Shelther in Melbourne

Blanky: Karmann, whose whiskers and eyelashes seem to represent the only hair on her body, will spend the next three months in the ICU

Here her temperature is carefully monitored and she is steadily putting on weight thanks to being fed six times a day.

The equipment to care for Karmann, who is now three-and-a- half-months old, was purchased thanks to a government grant and generous donations from the public following Australia's devastating wildfires last year.

Unlike kangaroos, wombats have a pouch on their backs instead of their stomachs.

This ensures that as they dig their burrows with their front paws and strong, rodent-like teeth, they do not cover their newborns with dirt.

Baby wombats are not supposed to leave the pouch until they are about seven months old - which is why Karmann is being kept in an incubator and cared for so carefully.

Cosy: Karmann looks sleepy as she is bundled up inside a nest a blankets in the incubator

Lucky to be alive: Karmann was saved by a driver after her mother was run over by a car