W.R.E.S. Success Stories
Wally Wallaby - A Most Unexpected Rescue
from Barb
When my partner Kevin and Keith Baines went to get gum leaves for the koalas, the truck they were driving somehow locked itself with them on the outside in the pouring rain. They called me at the complex, where I was feeding and cleaning up after the koalas, also in the pouring rain. They asked me to get the spare key and come and rescue them.
On the way back I saw something moving on the side of the road (McIvor Highway, just outside of Heathcote) On going back to investigate it turned out to be a very wet, dirty and bedraggled wallaby. He was thrashing about, trying to get upright. I couldn't find any sign of broken bones or cuts, so I slid him into my oilskin coat and with the help of my sister (who had come along for the ride) carried him to my car and drove him to the vet. He was bleeding from his right ear and his eyes were moving rapidly from side to side, indicating a head injury.
The vet said she could not really examine him in that wet and dirty condition and suggested that we take him home to dry, clean and warm up and bring him back the next day. We dried him gently with towels and a hairdryer then kept a heat lamp on him all night. On examination the next day, the vet said that he did have a head injury that was affecting his balance, thus making it impossible for him to stand. She told us that native animals often do not recover well from these problems and it might be best to euthanize him, but on consultation with the senior vet, it was decided to see how well he went in the next few days. We took him home and fed him drop by drop from a syringe, milk suitable for marsupials. He swallowed this weakly. Eventually he lapped the milk from a saucer, but was still wobbly on his feet.
We were concerned by his lack of balance but with time he gradually became able to stand and then move forward slowly (with many tumbles to start with).
The other main concern was that he appeared to have little or no vision for some time but this eventually improved too. He was moved outside into a shed with straw bedding and graduated to a diet of a native bush known as totem poles, grated carrot, sweet potato and Lucerne. He started to hop strongly but because of his injuries he hopped in right hand circles and occasionally bumped into things. This made u think he may not recover but after another couple of weeks we let him out into a yard where he hopped in a straight line and avoided obstacles. So it was clear that his balance had returned and his eyesight has also returned. The time had come to release him back to the wild, so we drove him back the location where we found him, but far from the road. He hopped a short distance, looked around for a while, nibbled on some leaves and hopped away. A great result.
Kermit the Frogmouth - Raising a Night Bird
Kermit, unlike his namesake, was a greyish-brown pompom with a beak - a very wide beak. The young Tawny Frogmouth had me entranced. An orphan, and with other carers booked up with temporary stays, I was only too happy to have a go.
I soon discovered the challenge of feeding, different from magpies and crows, birds I had become used to looking after. Learning about the fragile membrane at the back of a Frogmouth's throat, easily damaged during incorrect feeding techniques, had me terrified. However, I couldn’t let him starve. Discarding the plastic tweezers, so successful with other birds I'd cared for, I opted for softer and more sensitive tools, my fingers. More...
Canadian Rescuers Down Under
On a recent trip to Australia, a Canadian family was involved in a rescue of the local wildlife. AnnieMary Ryan talks about an adventure within an adventure.
We were on the edge of the outback in NSW at about 7pm and it was pretty dark. As we rounded a turn, we saw that a Kangaroo had just been hit by a truck that was a mile or so ahead of us. Dead Kangaroos are quite common in that part of the world, but this one was a little different. She was in the middle of our lane and she had her head up looking straight at me. It was sort of creepy. My husband, Geoff, pulled the motor home over and went back to pull her off the road. Living in Alberta we know that dead animals in the middle of the road can cause a lot of damage.
From the motor home, I couldn’t see what he was doing back there, so I waited with our three children for the gruesome details. As he approached out of the darkness, we could see that he was wrestling with something held to his chest.
More...
