A mother kangaroo with a joey in her pouch has had a rough few days and probably a major headache.
First, she was shot through her head with an arrow, leaving her badly injured, bleeding and carrying the weapon protruding near her eye socket. Then, she was pursued by her would-be rescuers for four days until they finally caught her.
On Tuesday, the kangaroo was taken to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital along with her joey.
The veterinary team operated on her, cut down the arrow and then removed it while the mama kangaroo was sedated.
The arrow came extremely close to the kangaroo’s skull and brain, according to the hospital. It grazed the skull and came millimeters from her eye socket and optical nerves. Had the arrow been left inside, it would’ve been a “slow, painful death” for the creature.
Australia’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is investigating who shot the arrow at the kangaroo in the town of Toorbul, north of the Queensland capital of Brisbane.
After the surgery, the hospital staff returned the kangaroo into the wild, where she’s expected to wake up “much more comfortably without the arrow,” according to a hospital media statement.
This kangaroo is far from the only famous mom who received care at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital. Last week, an injured koala, Lizzy made headlines around the world after her joey, Phantom clung to her throughout surgery.
