A wombat has earned the nickname Ian Thorpe after swimming for nearly 40 minutes before being rescued from a Canberra pond after a thunderstorm.
The wombat was rescued from Yerrabi Pond in Canberra’s north by a woman in a kayak on Monday evening.
Diana Perriman told ABC Radio Canberra she found out about the trapped wombat from her daughter who lives nearby, whose neighbour first spotted the animal swimming in circles.
“He’d been watching this poor little wombat struggling in the middle of Yerrabi Pond outside of their townhouses and couldn’t really do anything,” Ms Perriman said.
She said her daughter enlisted her to rescue the wombat after immediate help wasn’t available from wildlife rangers and the SES.
“[They were] too busy rescuing other people I think, it was a pretty big downpour,” she said.
“She just called me and said ‘how long will it take you to put your kayak on the car?’ And I just said ‘I’m coming!’ and … ran downstairs.”
Ms Perriman said she didn’t know how she would get the wombat out of the pond, but found she had support once she arrived.
“I didn’t have a plan much, but fortunately I wasn’t on my own and the team at the waterside said ‘just, y’know, guide it in’,” she said.
“I kayaked out, and it fortunately was not too far from the shore at that point but it was swimming in the wrong direction which was disheartening – and it was really at the end of its tether, the poor thing.
“I kept putting my paddle underneath its head to lift it out, because all I could see was bubbles at times, so I was just lifting him out to get a breath and then shepherding him into the shore.”
Ms Perriman said she and the people on the shore were quite anxious throughout the rescue.
“Watching a beautiful creature like that struggling, it’s just terrible,” she said.
“Fortunately the paddle worked very well, if anyone’s doing it [rescuing a swimming wombat with a kayak]: paddle underneath.
“They don’t like it much and that’s fine, but at least they can get up and get a breath.”
‘About a 50-50 chance whether he actually survives’
After Ian Thorpe the wombat was pulled from the pond he was caught by the Wombat Rescue NSW/ACT team.
He was taken to Wombat Rescue president Yolandi Vermaak, who said wombats don’t like to swim, but can handle swimming short distances when necessary.
“Because they’re so bulky and heavy it’s not something they can do for an extended period, they do get waterlogged and tired,” she said.
“He’d been swimming for 40 minutes, so that’s probably the maximum they can do.
“Wombats don’t have really good eyesight, so when they’re in the water it’s basically just their nose and eyes above water, they wouldn’t know which direction to go.”
Ms Vermaak said the 35kg wombat – one of the biggest she had ever handled – was too tired to put up a fight once he was rescued.
“He should have been cranky … and growly with me, and he wasn’t. He was just lying down, wheezing,” she said.
“He aspirated quite a significant amount of water into his lungs, so he was not in a good space yesterday and he still isn’t great.
“We do a lot of assessments ourselves, but we do need that expert [vet] opinion in terms of aspiration because near-drowning is pretty brutal on them – it’s mostly fatal.”
She said unfortunately he’s not out of the woods yet, and he may not make a recovery at all.
“[He’s] really tired. He’s still very very sick, he’s not moving much, he’s not eating or drinking, so that’s always a worry,” Ms Vermaak said.
“We’ve talked to the vet and we’re giving him two days to see if the antibiotics make a difference, then we’ll reassess and see how we go.
“At this stage I think it’s about a 50-50 chance whether he actually survives this.”
Ms Vermaak said whether Ian Thorpe the wombat bounces back will depend on whether he can eat and drink on his own again.
“Usually when I get wombats into care and they’re sick, even if they’re adults I can syringe feed them food,” she said.
“But because he aspirated fluid I’m quite hesitant to syringe feed him anything because I don’t want him to aspirate anything else.
“So he needs to be able to drink and eat on his own, that’s the critical thing for the next 24 hours.”