When palpating — undertaking a hand examination of — Grace the koala at Taipei City Zoo on Nov. 18, a veterinarian found soft tissue measuring about 0.3 cm in the lymph in the animal’s left armpit. The next day, Grace was found resting on the ground by a zookeeper — her sharply deteriorating health had made her too weak to climb the tree.
The zookeeper immediately notified the vet and removed the 201-day-old cub Joey from Grace’s pouch. A blood test revealed an abnormal increase of Grace’s white blood cells, and determined that a retrovirus had developed and caused acute leukemia. After discussions with the expert group in the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Australia, the zoo’s medical care team decided to euthanize the koala, and she was later put to sleep.
In most cases, if the mother koala nursing a baby dies in the wild, the baby in her pouch will not survive. Fortunately, Joey was removed from the mother’s pouch to be hand-raised as soon as the zookeeper found that Grace was ill. This was done to reduce the burden on Grace, but also to allow Joey’s health to be closely monitored.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo 照片:台北市立動物園提供
Joey, an adorable female koala cub, is about to turn seven months old. As she currently needs to be fed with milk every three hours, the zookeepers sewed a small bag with cotton cloth to simulate the mother koala’s pouch, so that Joey could be swaddled in the bag in the zookeeper’s arms during feeding. The zookeepers also prepared a soft toy for Joey to hold onto to practice grasping and to be trained to live on a eucalyptus leaf diet. Joey is now gradually gaining weight.
(Translated by Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
台北市立動物園無尾熊「Grace」十一月十八日接受獸醫師觸診時,獸醫發現牠左邊腋下淋巴有一約零點三公分大的軟組織。十一月十九日,保育員發現Grace停留在地面休息,精神狀況急轉直下,沒有力氣自己爬到樹上。
Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo 照片:台北市立動物園提供
保育員通知獸醫師,同時也趕緊將Grace育兒袋中日齡兩百零一天的小無尾熊Joey取出。Grace經獸醫師抽血檢查後發現白血球數量異常增加,研判為反轉錄病毒發病,引發急性白血病。動物園醫療照養團隊和澳洲庫倫賓動物保護區的專家群討論後,決定執行人道處理,讓Grace在沉睡中平靜地離開。
通常在野外,育幼中的無尾熊媽媽若不幸死亡,育兒袋中的寶寶也無法倖存。所幸動物園保育員發現Grace發病,就當機立斷趕緊把Joey取出來照顧,一方面希望能夠減輕媽媽的負擔,另一方面是為了即時監測Joey的健康情形。
Joey即將滿七個月大,是個可愛的小女生。現在Joey平均每間隔三小時就要餵奶,保育員因此用棉布縫製了一個小袋子,餵奶時間一到,保育員就把Joey放在棉布袋中,揣在懷裡模擬寶寶待在媽媽育兒袋內的環境。保育員也幫Joey準備了布偶,讓牠爬在布偶背上練習抓握能力,並開始學習採食尤加利樹葉。Joey的體重已慢慢增加。
Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo 照片:台北市立動物園提供
(自由時報記者蔡思培)
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