HAND-REARING
Orphaned bare-nosed and southern hairy-nosed wombats are regularly brought into care for hand-rearing by wildlife rehabilitators (see Chapter 15). A study evaluating the success of this practice, including preparation for return of bare-nosed wombats to the wild, reported a high proportion (81.5%) of such orphans surviving the rehabilitation process as well as a post-release survival rate of 77.3% (Saran et al.
2011). Although limited in scope, the study suggests that rehabilitation of orphans can contribute to conservation efforts.Anderson et al. (2015) describe a case of bilateral distal femoral Salter-Harris type I fractures in a juvenile southern hairy-nosed wombat. It is speculated that this injury occurred as a result of forcible removal from the deceased dam’s pouch at the time of rescue, although metabolic bone disease (see Table 37.1) may also have been a contributing factor.
5.