Home sweet Jo! The abandoned baby wallaby kept alive... by the zoo keeper raising her in a BACKPACK



A tiny baby wallaby abandoned by her mother has been saved and is now being reared - in a backpack.

Tilly, a seven-month-old Bennett's Wallaby, was found on the ground outside her mother's pouch in their enclosure at Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire, last month.

The helpless joey should have spent at least nine months with her mother and would have died without the crucial temperature regulation she provides.

But caring zoo keeper Jo Shirley bought a £6 rucksack from Argos and turned it into a fleecy, warm life-saving pouch for Tilly.

Relaxed: Tilly relaxes inside her rucksack today at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire



The youngster loves being wrapped in a blanket inside the bag and now travels everywhere with her adoptive mother.

She goes home with Jo, 24, at night and enjoys nothing better than cuddling on the sofa watching The Only Way Is Essex and Desperate Housewives

The 'girly' creature has also developed a taste for fashion and has joined Jo on trips to High Street shops including Top Shop and H&M.

Creature comforts: Tilly travels everywhere with zoo keeper Jo Shirley, 24



Tilly has recently come off special formula milk and is now being fed solids, including hawthorn and beech, which are placed in the bag for her to eat as she is carried about.

Jo said: 'It's been an amazingly rewarding experience having Tilly with me all of the time.

'It was tough at first because I had to get up lots in the night to feed her, but it's much easier now she eats just four times a day.

'Tilly will snuggle on my lap at home and watch TV with me. She's a real girly girl, so she enjoys the same programmes as me.

'She sleeps in her rucksack in my kitchen because it's nice and warm but I can hear her climbing out and hopping about at night.

'She started to become much more independent and gets out of the rucksack much more often.

'She thinks I'm her mother and follows me around everywhere so it will be difficult when she has to go back to the zoo.

Carry-on: Tilly was abandoned by its mother in an enclosure at the zoo last year



Covered up: The fleecy backpack serves as a warm pouch for the seven-month-old



' But I'll still be feeding her twice a day so that bond will still be there - I won't just abandon her.'

When Tilly is nine months she will go to live on the Whipsnade's Children's Farm where she will join other hand-reared wallabies Ruby, Pip and Fidget.

Kat Baldwyn at Whipsnade Zoo said: 'Tilly was found out of her mum's pouch so the backpack is as close to her normal environment as we can get.

Jo cares for Tilly round the clock and they watch Desperate Housewives and The Only Way Is Essex together



'Joey's found outside the patch usually die because they are exposed to the cold and predators.

'She has fun in her new pouch. There is a blanket and food in there and we expect her to live in there for another two months."