WIRES rescue orphaned baby ringtail possum from Hillsdale

A seven-week-old female ringtail possum joey is lucky to be alive after being rescued from the streets of Sydney’s east

A seven-week-old female ringtail possum joey is lucky to be alive after being rescued from the streets of Sydney’s east.

WIRES has nicknamed the little joey ‘Hillary’ after she was found with her twin in her mum’s pouch near the shopping district in Hillsdale.

It is believed the mother fell while trying to traverse power lines.

Sadly, neither the twin or the mother survived, but little Hillary has been responding well to care.

WIRES volunteer Jodi Kovacs bottle feeding and hand raising baby ringtail possum Hillary. Picture: Toby Zerna

Hillary is a 53g baby who is about 80 days old. Picture: Toby Zerna

“She is going well and will probably be in care for about three months and then she will be released back in the area where she was found,” John Grant from WIRES said.

“In the meanwhile, she will be buddied up with another joey around the same age and then released together so they don’t go off on their own. So, they’ve got a companion when they’re released.”

Mr Grant said when possums are so small they are fed with little syringes with a specially formulated milk to help them grow.

The volunteer becomes the joey’s mum so it can be raised and released back into the wild.

“Volunteers do a great job of finding the natural leaf they like to eat. They spend a lot of time and commitment and have to get up during the night to feed these little joeys every three or four hours. It’s all about rearing them so they’ll survive in the wild.”