Help save the Bare-Nosed Wombat

Most of our work takes us into the bush, working with wild wombats.

There are not enough facilities to take every wombat that is sick or manged into care. The need is just to big and the resources to few. But for those adult wombats that are sick and are reported, we have a fighting chance to save them.

It takes a long time and lots of dedication and perseverance. We have to track them, find where they live and start treating them, sometimes for months until they are healed. It's a big commitment.

This doesn't solve the problem entirely though. This wombat may be better but mange is incredibly contagious and if one wombat in a population has it, the other wombats will too. We try to implement population treatment programs where we treat every burrow in a specific area, regardless of how many wombats there are.

This is an even bigger and more expensive commitment. It takes hundreds of man hours for a team of volunteers to scout for burrows, map and mark them and install treatment equipment called burrow-flaps. Weekly treatment is required for months.

But when you see results like Romeo you know it's all worth it. Romeo was so badly manged that most of his body was covered in thick plaques which is the result of the sarcoptic mange mites burrowing into his skin. It's thick and hard and can be suffocating. He has lost a lot of fur and his eyes and ears have crusted over. He was almost blind and had to navigate his surroundings by smell and hearing only. He did so remarkably.

In just a few weeks after treatment started Romeo starting losing the dead skin crusts and new skin was starting to form underneath. We kept treating his skin for bleeding as the crusts fell off and left some patches raw and bleeding. But eventually those healed and he is on his way to recovery.

This work, to help wombats out there, is immense, and not possible without the help of those who financially support it.

Thank you providing that support and means for us to do the work we do to save them, one wombat at a time

kind regards

Yolandi Vermaak

Wombat Rescue

Links:

• Wombat Romeo's journey during mange treatment