Joey Koala Clings To Mother Undergoing Surgery For Collapsed Lung After Car Hit

A car hit a mother koala on a highway west of Brisbane. The koala, named Lizzy, was with her six-month-old joey, Phantom. The baby koala was not hurt, but Lizzy suffered from collapsed lung which required surgery.

However, Phantom clang to Lizzy that the medical staff at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah, Queensland, allowed Joey to hold on to its mother while the operation was going on, reports CNN. Lizzy’s case is one of 100 wildlife emergency cases handled by the hospital daily.

The medical centre, named in honor of Lyn Irwin – a wildlife care pioneer and mother of wildlife expert Steve Irwin who died in 2004 from a stingray stab – admits up to 30 different animal species a day. Like Lizzy, many of the koalas are victims of car hits or attacks by domesticated animals.

The hospital receives about 70 koalas every month which incur treatment cost of up to $3,900. Vet nurse Lynn Nevers disclosed that Lizzy is recovering from her surgery. The image of the two koalas became viral on the Internet.

While animal hospitals in Australia are spending so much to save koalas and other endemic animals that meet accidents, officials in the Aussie state of Victoria are conducting a health assessment of the overabundant koala population in Cape Otway. The Washington Post reports that the koala’s staple, manna gum leaves, are in short supply in the cape which is a famous tourist landmark because of the koalas.

Because of the situation, Victoria officials announced that female koalas would be implanted with birth control devices, while sick and malnourished ones would be euthanised. The latter aims to prevent the furry animal from further suffering, but Mandy Watson, spokeswoman of the state’s environmental ministry, insisted that the welfare and habitat health of the koalas remains the agency’s top priorities.

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