Doug Gimesy
Bare Nose to Bare-Nosed Wombat
Rescue of a baby wombat, Australia, 2022
Category - Changemakers
Veterinary student Aldana comforts a four-month-old orphaned bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus) named Maude by rubbing noses. Like most young mammals, baby wombats take comfort in warm, secure, loving connection – just as they would do with their mother in the wild – but wombats, with their highly sensitive noses, seem to especially like nose-to-nose contact. Maude became an orphan after her mother was hit and killed by a car; luckily, somebody stopped to check the pouch and took her to the Joey and Bat Sanctuary (Beveridge, Victoria, Australia), near Melbourne. Sadly, however, when Maude was old enough, she was not able to be released back to where she was found, as a housing estate was being built there. In Australia, an estimated 10 million native animals are killed every year by vehicle impacts, but these could often be prevented simply by drivers slowing down, especially during times when wildlife is more active and least visible (i.e. from dusk to dawn).
HONOURABLE MENTION
90 mm f/2.8Lens - 1/160 sec at f/3.5 ISO 800