AusLeisure

Australian Reptile Park keepers have rescued a four-month old male Parma wallaby joey having been found abandoned by his mother in the Park’s Parma wallaby exhibit.

Staff have named the joey “Bouddi” with the name meaning ‘heart’ in various indigenous languages. It is also the name of the largest national park on the Central Coast, Bouddi National Park.

To hand raise the wallaby joey, keepers have to provide Bouddi with round the clock care and attention, ensuring he is warm, cosy and is given a bottle five times a day. This includes waking up at 3am for a bottle feed and ensuring he is gaining weight, growing fur and blossoming into a healthy Parma wallaby. Thankfully, Bouddi is thriving and will be back with the family of Parma wallabies at the Australian Reptile Park in a few months’ time.

Australian Reptile Park Director, Tim Faulkner notes “It comes down to both luck and passion that our staff were able to rescue little Bouddi. Parma wallabies are very special to us as at the Australian Reptile Park so we had to do everything we possible could to save Bouddi, which meant getting our keepers to hand raise the joey.”

Once thriving in the wild, the Parma Wallaby population has plummeted significantly, especially with the devastating bushfires that wreaked havoc on their native habitat recently. The founder of the Australian Reptile Park, Eric Worrell, rediscovered the Parma wallaby, which had been presumed extinct in the 1970s. The Parma wallaby is currently listed as vulnerable in New South Wales.

Faulkner adds, “Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate on the planet, sadly our recent bushfires have only escalated these extremes. Parma wallabies are also a keystone species at our sister charity, Aussie Ark, which also has a prosperous breeding program for the species.

“Aussie Ark was founded by many members of the Australian Reptile Park staff so it’s absolutely wonderful to see that our Parma wallaby breeding program is successfully producing joeys at both organisations, and we are able to ensure a future for this special Aussie species.”

The breeding season of the Parma wallaby occurs between February and June. After a pregnancy of around 35 days, the newborn attaches firmly to one of four teats in the mother’s pouch, which it leaves at about thirty weeks, still suckling until approximately 10 months old.

For more information on the Australian Reptile Park go to www.reptilepark.com.au 

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