A baby wombat has been pulled alive from the pouch of its dead mother by an animal worker on a Tasmanian highway.

The tiny marsupial was said to be just hours from death as temperatures inside its mother’s pouch had plummeted when Jodie Bradshaw from FreeHearts Animal Sanctuary arrived.

Despite the adult wombat dying an estimated 24-hours earlier, Ms Bradshaw inspected the pouch on the off-chance an infant may have survived.

Her instincts were correct as a tiny paw poked out of the pouch after sensing the animal rescuer’s presence.

"If you see a dead animal by the roadside, stop and check that there is not a baby in the pouch," she wrote on the animal sanctuary's Facebook page.

"I nearly didn't stop when I saw this wombat because it was obvious she had been dead for more than 24 hours and I didn't think there was any chance that a baby would still be alive. I was wrong and this little guy was slowly freezing to death."