Police stepped in to assist volunteer wildlife rescuers faced with a prickly situation on Isabella Drive in Tuggeranong at the weekend.
An echidna had been found in a storm water drain alongside the busy thoroughfare and the mammal was jammed inside, unable to extricate itself. With rain forecast, its outlook was dire.
Police officers slowed down traffic and stepped in to assist the rescuers to carefully remove the stricken monotreme out of the drain, releasing it into a nearby greenbelt area, a safe distance from the roadway.
The Officer in Charge of Tuggeranong Station, Inspector Rod Anderson, said the incident showed that policing was not always about fighting crime, but stepping up to help out in other, sometimes unusual situations.
"A lot of the time people think we are here just to fight crime, but policing is so much more than that," he said
"We are also part of this community and sometimes the prickly situations we face don't always involve people."
