Robert Irwin saves fruit store from prickly predicament

The fruit shop recently found themselves in a prickly predicament, but an Australian celebrity came to save the day.

SPIKY FRIEND: Alan Fenwick and the Australia Zoo Wildlife Rescue team after saving an echidna. Picture: Contributed

A BUDERIM fruit shop recently found themselves in a prickly predicament, but an Australian celebrity came to save the day.

Fenwick's Fruit Emporium owner Alan Fenwick couldn't believe his eyes when a small creature waddled right past him while packing shelves.

"Out the corner of my eye, I saw it. My initial thought was that it was an animal like a cat, but it was an echidna,” Mr Fenwick said.

The staff's attempts to coach the echidna out with a broom were unsuccessful, as the spiny anteater wedged itself under the dairy fridge.

"It actually got past us and then was stuck,” he said. "It wasn't moving very fast, but it all seemed to go by really quickly.”

And if there's something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Australia Zoo Wildlife Rescue, Mr Fenwick thought.

Yet he never believed the man himself would come to their rescue.

"We were sort of joking, saying 'wouldn't it be funny if Bindi or Rob Irwin came out?', but then he actually turned up.”

After hours of Robert Irwin and the Australia Zoo Wildlife Rescue team trying to get the echidna out of its hiding spot, it was finally set free.

"They came up with a plan to come back at night. They shone their torches into the glass window of the shop, and we could see the echidna walking around,” Mr Fenwick said.

"They raced in and grabbed it, checked to see if it was alright, and then released it into the rainforest at the back of the store.”