{"id":307495,"date":"2026-02-20T06:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307495\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T06:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:03:15","slug":"campers-find-a-mystery-baby-the-size-of-a-fingernail-struggling-in-the-dirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307495\/","title":{"rendered":"Campers Find A Mystery Baby The Size Of A Fingernail Struggling In The Dirt"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day, a young couple camping in Victoria, Australia, noticed a tiny, fuzzy baby on the ground at their campsite. They couldn\u2019t tell what kind of animal he was, but they knew he needed help.<\/p>\n

\"cuteWildlife Victoria<\/p>\n

The couple called Wildlife Victoria<\/a>, a local animal rescue, who identified the baby as a young feathertail glider. The rescuers were shocked \u2014 they don\u2019t often get calls about feathertail gliders, one of Australia\u2019s most unique marsupials.<\/p>\n

In their adult form, feathertail gliders measure up at just 2 to 3 inches long, making them the smallest gliding mammals in the world. With the help of flaps under their arms, they can glide between trees as far as 90 feet apart.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the rarer species reported to Wildlife Victoria,\u201d Oscar Formoso, Wildlife Victoria\u2019s head of emergency response service told The Dodo.<\/p>\n

It was clear to the Wildlife Victoria staff that the feathertail glider needed immediate saving. They sent a rescuer named Mary to come pick up the baby and transport him to their facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeathertail gliders are [an] arboreal, nocturnal species, and as this little one was found during the day and on the ground, it was immediately clear to our emergency response service that something was wrong,\u201d Formoso said.<\/p>\n

Back at the Wildlife Victoria headquarters, the joey, or baby marsupial, got a full examination. The staff couldn\u2019t tell exactly how old he was or how he\u2019d ended up all alone, but they knew he needed some TLC.<\/p>\n

Wildlife Victoria<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unknown how long he had been orphaned, however, he was clearly dehydrated and cold,\u201d Formoso said.<\/p>\n

All it took was a little food, water and a long nap for the baby to start feeling better.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter some rest and hydration, the little joey perked up and was in good spirits,\u201d Formoso said.<\/p>\n

Wildlife Victoria<\/p>\n

Once the baby was in stable condition, Wildlife Victoria transported him to a long-term wildlife shelter, where he\u2019ll continue recovering until he\u2019s ready to be released back into the wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor orphaned juveniles, we want to make sure the animal will survive in the wild on their own so that they can feed themselves, avoid predators, and \u2026 are fit and healthy for finding a mate,” Formoso said.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the campers who discovered the joey and the many wildlife rescuers who worked hard to save him, this feathertail glider will have a second chance at life.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to support Wildlife Victoria, you can make a donation here<\/a>.\u00a0\"Huge<\/a>Huge Animal Dangled Upside Down For Hours \u2014 Then Help Arrived Just In TimeHe flew straight into a power line \ud83d\ude1f<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The other day, a young couple camping in Victoria, Australia, noticed a tiny, fuzzy baby on the ground…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1283,1285,61,60,34870,82,1284,1282,263],"class_list":["post-307495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alana-francis-crow","tag-daily-dodo","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rescue","tag-science","tag-standard","tag-the-dodo","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}