By Leo Black
Meet the four-year-old ‘wombat whisperer’ who’s best friends with the marsupials – and even learned how to walk with them.
Ashlee Neill spends up to three hours per day playing with the wombats and has been around the animals since birth.
Dad Josh Neill, 41, and his partner Amber Moyes rehabilitate wombats which have been injured in the wild or became orphans after their mothers died.
The little girl is so good with the marsupials that she helps speed up their recovery and boosts their confidence.
Josh, an electrician from Hayfield, Victoria, Australia, said: “When they’re young and dependent they need a lot of attention or they stress quite badly.
“They need to be following someone around or they’ll stress because they’re always looking for their mum.
“With Ashlee, they get comfortable, they learn to eat grass, they learn to be outside, they run around.
“If it weren’t because of her they wouldn’t rehab so quickly.”
The family started rehabilitating wombats in 2013, long before Ashlee was born.
They release the animals into the wild after they’ve recovered, which normally takes about six months.
At the moment, they are looking after four wombats.
Ashlee doesn’t have many playmates because they live in a rural area, so she and the wombats have become almost like siblings.
Ashlee even learned to walk by leaning on a wombat, according to Josh.
The four-year-old is so close to the animals that she has mostly foregone toys – choosing to play with the wombats all day instead.
Josh said: “Some of those wombats are like her siblings. That’s why people in the area call her ‘the wombat whisperer.’
“They’re her friends, they’re like a little family.
“She doesn’t have many toys so she goes outside, runs around with them and goes on little adventures.
“It’s really cute, sometimes I’ll come inside and she’ll just be reading them stories.”
Josh added: “I guess she’s learned to read them.
“They wouldn’t really be this comfortable with anyone else, you need to build that trust.”
All this contact with the needy wombats has given Ashlee big dreams and she now wants to be a vet.
Josh said: “She wants to be a vet. A lot of the animals aren’t in good condition, there’s not a lot of people to look up to out here and the vets safe them.”
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