Rescue efforts to save a runaway wallaby, found wandering around the Brisbane suburb of West End, have ended in tragedy after vets found a large tumour near the pregnant marsupial's heart.
West End resident Louise Cuskelly was out on her morning walk when she spotted the wallaby who was looking worse for wear on Monday morning.
"We were just walking along the riverfront down near Jane Street Markets and this [wallaby] came through the mangroves of the river," Ms Cuskelly said.
"It looked like it was having a bit of trouble as it was crossing the road.
"[It] kept slipping and falling and it was terribly scared.
"Then it ran across the oval [at] Davies Park."
Worried the wallaby would make its way closer to the city, Ms Cuskelly followed it across Montague Road where she and others were able to contain it in an underground car park of a commercial business.
With help from the community, local wildlife rescue worker Kerry Schilling took the wallaby to the RSPCA where it was identified as an adult female swamp wallaby, pregnant with a "non-viable joey".
Pregnant wallaby 'very ill'
RSPCA spokesperson Michael Beatty said upon being examined, vets found "a massive tumour" close to the wallaby's heart.
"The exact name is pulmonary hydatid cyst," he said.
"They discovered the cyst when they x-rayed her.
"She was very thin, she had some trauma or scratches to her face and tail."
Due to the size of the cyst and the discomfort the animal would likely have been in, the wallaby was euthanised.
"She would have been feeling very ill and very weak, she obviously wasn't feeding properly."
Ms Schilling who has rescued wallabies from Brisbane suburbs before, said she had "no idea" how a wallaby ended up so close to the CBD.
She said Wacol would be the closest area that the wallaby could have come from.
Mr Beatty said the wallaby was likely so ill, she became disoriented and wandered into the city.
