A video of a wallaby jumping across the Harbour Bridge in January went viral around the world, and late last year another wallaby was spotted hopping across four lanes of traffic on Pittwater Rd, Manly, before heading into an underground carpark.

The wallaby rescued by Manly Fast Ferry staff on Thursday was taken to Forest Animal Hospital for X-rays to check how much seawater she had swallowed.

She is now recovering at Waratah Park, Sydney Wildlife’s rehab facility in Duffy’s Forest.

Sydney Wildlife boss Joan Reid said the creature would be given antibiotics and could be released this afternoon.

She said a lack of wildlife corridors in new developments meant the creatures couldn’t move from one habitat to another without emerging into urban areas.

“They are vulnerable,” she said. “They can’t get from point A to point B.”

Fellow Sydney Wildlife volunteer Jodi Lewis from Balgowlah — who rescued Thursday’s wallaby — blamed land clearing at Manly Vale Public School and the Northern Beaches Hospital for the recent incidents on the peninsula.

“It’s possible the land clearing is starting to have an effect on animals,” she said.

‘We do what we can.”

Ms Lewis said they tried to get tunnels built under the roads near the new hospital to help save wildlife, but it didn’t happen.

When Ms Lewis was contacted to rescue the wallaby off Manly Wharf, she said: “When we got the call asking us to go, we thought it was a gee up.

“We got there and realised it was legit.

“I carried her to the front of the wharf and secured her in my car with a blanket I’d grabbed off my bed.

“She’s going well and she looks like she’ll be okay to be released.”

Ms Lewis said she’s unsure why the creature was in Manly, but witnesses believe a dog which should have been on its leash in what’s a strict on-leash area, may have spooked her into the water.

“She might have been exploring something, and she’s got spooked, and then the dog didn’t help.” she said.

The wallaby, believed to have come from Dobroyd Head, Balgowlah Heights, was earlier seen jumping into the water near the Manly Sealife Sanctuary.

She was rescued around 7.15pm by the ferries.

Meanwhile, details of the rescue have emerged.

Eira Battaglia from Seaforth is a warden who keeps an eye on the penguins which live around Manly Cove and was one of the first to spot the wallaby in the water.

She said a woman with a pram came running over to the beach near Manly Wharf where they’re stationed, saying she’d seen a wallaby jump in the water at Federation Point near Manly Sealife Sanctuary.

The penguin wardens contacted Maritime NSW and Water Police but neither said they could help.

But luckily, Manly Fast Ferry skipper Darren Moore and deckhand Christopher Thomas were alerted to the wallaby by people on the wharf.

“It was heading south, away from the wharf out to sea and so they manoeuvred the boat to block it and encourage it to head back to shore,” a fast ferry spokeswoman said.

“When it tired it leant against the boat which is when they were able to put the rope around its tummy with a hook and haul it up.

“We are very proud of the crew.

“We’re all about the safety of our passengers and the wildlife.”

Mr Thomas, 36, said: “A lot happens on the harbour, but this must have been one of the weirdest incidents.

“When we got it on the boat our first thought was, ‘Now what do we do? We have a wallaby on the boat’”.

Mrs Battaglia praised Manly Fast Ferry crew.

“They stopped the ferries and corralled the wallaby,” she said.

“They were brilliant.”

“He probably came from Dobroyd to North Harbour Reserve to get to Federation Point. “They’re losing their habitat. They’re just going wherever they can find.”

She added that earlier she’d warned a woman to put her two dogs on a leash in what’s an on leash area, but she refused.

The latest wallaby incident follows sightings of the marsupials in built up areas on the peninsula in the last few months.

In December one was spotted hopping across Pittwater Rd in Manly before bouncing through the shopping precinct and heading into an underground carpark.

The female adult swamp wallaby was rescued by a wildlife expert and firefighters from Manly and after treatment at Taronga Zoo was later released.

In another incident late last year a wallaby was spotted in Quirk Rd, Manly Vale.

Edwina Laginestra from WIRES who helped rescue the wallaby from the underground carpark said wallabies were more regularly being spotted in built-up areas.

“Something is spooking them,” she told the Manly Daily at the time.

“It wouldn’t be surprising if it was being caused by the school development up at Manly Vale.”

Last month a video of a wallaby holding up traffic as it was hopping across Sydney Harbour Bridge went viral.

After being cared for by Taronga Zoo, it was released.