Roadkill 'graffiti' is helping to rescue Australian wildlife

Each lifeless body of a kangaroo or wombat lining the sides of roads in the Bega Valley marked with spray-paint signifies that the animal has been checked by a carer of a wildlife rescue team.

One such wildlife carer is Shannon Davis from WIRES and Potoroo Palace, who keeps a rescue basket in the back of her car for when she comes across an injured or killed animal.

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The green basket is filled with a variety of items required to assist in wildlife rescues, including pouches to accommodate kangaroos and wombats, multiple bandages, scissors for joey retrievals, safety pins, garden gloves, plastic tubs for lizards and echidnas, wire cutters for bats and gliders, water, sugar water, manuka honey, ear drops for getting maggots out of wounds, and orange spray paint.

Due to the winter weather conditions freezing roadkill and limiting the rate by which they decompose, Ms Davis said she purposely left their bodies in view of traffic rather than removing them from roadsides.

"I'd like people to be able to drive down the road and see them, and go 'there's lots of wombats around, I need to slow down'," she said. "People need to slow down."

The NSW Government recommended drivers slow down and apply brakes when seeing animals in close proximity to the road, and not to swerve and risk causing a collision or loss of vehicle control.

While for many, it was automatic to swerve, Ms Davis wanted to remind drivers to slow down and be aware, suggesting your eyes should regularly dart to the sides of the roads to check for wildlife.

After receiving a phone call from someone who has come across or accidentally hit an animal, Ms Davis said the safety of the person calling was always first.

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"I've even had cases where I've come across a roadkill [and] I can't stop because it is in too bad an area," she said.

"And I'll go back when I can late at night when there's no traffic, but in the middle of the day [it's difficult]."

She said, depending on the weather, a joey will live for approximately 24 hours before it will freeze to death.

"I think the one thing we always try to express to people is if they find a joey, and it's attached to a teat, that's when you have to call someone because you can't pull them off the teat because you will damage their mouth," Ms Davis said.

Without phone calls, some joeys don't have the opportunity to be saved, so Ms Davis will do a large spray-painted cross on the mother, a little cross for the joey, and she will place a picked flower inside the pouch.

"I always say a little something, I say 'Sorry' if the baby's died, [tell the mother] 'I couldn't save your baby', just so they know. If they've died together, they should stay together," she said with sincerity.

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