Kangaroo hoisted from deep mine shaft in Australia

June 15 (UPI) -- Wildlife rescuers in Australia said a kangaroo is recovering after being hoisted from the bottom of a disused mine shaft.

The Five Freedoms Animal Rescue said a pair of boys walking near their home in Drummond North, Victoria, discovered the marsupial trapped in a mine shaft that was about 23 feet deep.

Five Freedoms rescuer Manfred Zabinskas said it took about 90 minutes to hoist the 77-pound marsupial out of the hole.

"We got him out OK but we couldn't tell if he was injured. He was subdued and looking at us and clearly exhausted," Zabinskas told the Bendigo Advertiser. "He wasn't little. I've had bigger but I was glad to have plenty of helpers."

The kangaroo is now recovering at the sanctuary in Trentham.

Zabinskas said the rescue highlights the need for government action to protect wildlife from falling into old mine shafts.

"There so many of these dangerous mine shafts for our wildlife, you imagine suffering they go through if they fall down one," he said "I would call on the government to look at options to make these mine shafts safer. I think at least wildlife-proof fencing around the shafts would be a simple, cheap and effective way to safeguard them."