It was a stormy night when Emma Jane Kidd noticed some unfamiliar visitors snuggled together in her dog Merlin’s bed.
Stooping down to get a better look, Kidd saw three frightened babies using the bed as a warm, safe place to avoid the winds raging outside.
Kidd soon identified the animals as quendas, also known as southern brown bandicoots, a marsupial native to southwestern and southern Australia.
Frightened by Kidd and her dog investigating the bed, the mother quenda dashed away, leaving her month-old babies all alone.
Kidd quickly called the Darling Range Wildlife Shelter for help, and, soon enough, the babies were in good hands. Rescuers were shocked to find the little quendas seeking refuge inside a house.
“Quendas commonly live in yards and local bushlands,” a representative from Darling Range Wildlife Shelter told The Dodo. “It’s not unusual to see them if you live in the hills. But these quendas making a nest in a dog’s bed on the house veranda is very unusual.”
The shelter posted about the surprising babies on their Facebook account in an effort to raise awareness about what to do if you find these animals in need.
“They aren’t dogs!” the shelter wrote. “The triplets are now in care with us and are expected to grow nice and healthy.”
The quendas will remain at the shelter until they’re big enough to survive on their own, at which point they will be released back into the wild.
Shelter staff emphasized the importance of seeking professional help for wildlife rather than keeping a wild animal or trying to rehabilitate them yourself. This situation is a perfect example of helping wild creatures the right way.
“[Animals] need to be taken to licensed wildlife rehabilitators ASAP and not kept by members of the public,” the shelter representative said.
The quendas, once scared and alone, now have all the help they need to be able to return to the bushland where they belong.
With just one phone call, Kidd made sure these babies got the life they deserved.
