A Possum in my Pocket

Newton's law

2010-02-09T22:19:00.003+10:00

I think it was Newton that said, "for every action there's and equal and opposite reaction".

There are lots of practical applications of this law. For example, a few months ago when I was building the tawny aviary in our shed I climbed up the step ladder and hit my head on a light fitting above the aviary. Naturally, when you hit your head on something you duck. I ducked and bashed my face on the top of the aviary. It hurt for a couple of days, so I was a bit disappointed that I didn't at least have a black eye to show for it.

Tonight I managed to demonstrate the law again and I don't think the other person involved was too impressed.

We have a tawny in care at the moment. She almost certainly has rat lungworm disease, so we won't have her in care for long. Basically, we've got her for a couple of days to see if she improves, then she'll go back to the vet we got her from if she doesn't.

With rat lungworm disease the birds will still take food, but they become increasingly paralysed until they can't survive. Usually they are put out of their misery before then. It's misery because they usually still function from the neck up, the parasite affects the spinal column. I went to feed this poor girl tonight and she bit me quite hard. Newton's law kicked in and I pulled my hand away. Unfortunately, she was still attached to my finger, so when I pulled my hand away she came with it, just long enough for her to be dragged out of the basket. Then she let go and ended up being unceremoniously dumped on the concrete floor.

I wouldn't have mentioned this, but Donna fed her last night and did the exact same thing, so it's not a one of. If you're a new carer and you're reading this, don't be too embarassed about any silly mistakes you might make. Just try to learn from it, we certainly did.

I can't help thinking that when she goes to meet her maker, she'll be planning to haunt the poor vet that decided we'd be the best carers for her. I hope not, he's the best vet in the area.

An update

2009-10-12T12:18:00.002+10:00

It's been a while since I last blogged. I always seem to have uni assignments to work on just lately, so I feel guilty if I'm spending time writing a blog entry when I should be writing an essay. I've overcome my guilt for a while and am writing this when I should be finishing my assignment on the biogeography of genus Trichosurus (brushtail possums).

We've been pretty busy recently with the wildlife. The silly season is upon us and we're getting a lot of birds in care, especially young ones. I finally finished the tawny aviary about two months ago and it's already had a few visitors, including a couple of kookaburras that were fished out of an effluent pond.

A lot of our birds come to us via Pelican and Seabird Rescue. Regular readers might remember my post about our day helping them with a rescue last year. On Friday we finally got around to asking Hammy, the fearless leader of PASR, about membership while she was dropping off a baby tawny for us.

Saturday morning while I was lying in bed, feeling the effects of too much red wine the night before, Hammy rang to see if we wanted to go up to Beerwah with her. Beerwah is the home of Australia Zoo and their wildlife hospital. If you've ever watched the TV show Outback Wildlife Rescue, Beerwah is also the home of the Twinnies.

Only one of us could go as we have baby birds that need feeding throughout the day, so I gratiously let Donna stay home to feed the animals while I spent the day having an adventure.

Our first stop was the home of Liz and Alf, the only raptor carers in Brisbane. We had a Brahminy kite to drop off to them. Our tawny aviary is big, about three metres, by two, by two, but theirs are huge, as they need to be for the types of birds they look after. In fact our last visit to Liz and Alf was to see their aviaries and get some ideas for ours. Since Liz and Alf don't do lorikeets and Donna and I do, they gave us six tubs of lorikeet food that had been donated to them that morning.

From there we headed up to see the Twinnies. They live on about three acres with their parents and dozens of waterbirds. We had an orphaned cygnet to drop off to them and since it needed a name for their paperwork I suggested Madonna. Here's little Madonna getting aquainted with a cuddly toy.

From the Twinnie's place it was a five minute drive to Australia Zoo where we had an appointment for a magpie to have her plaster cast removed. They have a couple of bins in the waiting room of the hospital there, where carers can rummage through and take whatever they need. By the time I got home I had a box full of the lorikeet food, bandages, swabs, syringes, forceps, you name it I probably had it in that box.

Once the maggie had had her cast removed we headed back to the Twinnies, since we had some birds to bring back to Brisbane. It also gave us the chance to have a proper look around. Below is a picture of one of the dams on the property, called Pelican Paradise. Actually it's not just the pelicans that find it paradise, there's also a couple of swans, terns, gannets, ducks and some wild whistling ducks that aren't in care but just like to visit.

By now it was starting to get late and the Twinnies had to take some birds to Australia Zoo as well. We headed home with a magpie, a darter and an ibis in the back of the truck. The ibis was released back where it came from near North Pine dam and we finally got back to Hammy's place after dark.

But the work wasn't over yet. Donna arrived to pick me up with five birds in the back of the car that she'd just picked up from a vet. This was apart from the lorikeet she'd picked up from another vet that morning. Hammy took the wood duck, as our permit doesn't cover us for waterbirds yet, and we took the two magpies, the butcherbird and the crested pigeon.

Now you might think we could relax on Sunday, we had some junk mail to deliver but that was only going to take us about and hour and a half. Then we got a call from Hammy about a duck tangled up in some wire about five minutes from us.

We eventually found the duck and discovered it was actually entangled in fishing line in a creek about three metres from the shore where we couldn't reach it. A quick drive back home and I returned with a net on the end of a pole and my diving boots, wearing shorts instead of the jeans I'd originally put on.

I gave Donna the net so she could get it under the bird to support it as it was now getting very tired and kept going under. Just as I got my boots on and emptied my pockets ready to get in the water, Donna fell in. I helped her to her feet then waded in and was half way to the bird when it went under for the last time. Suddenly there was a huge splash next to me, one of the bystanders had dived in to help and she got to the bird before me.

It was then an easy task to pass over some cutters so the line could be cut and we all helped each other back to shore. We would have liked to have got the bird to a vet since it still had some line in its mouth, but as soon as our assistant reached out to drag herself out of the water the bird made a break for it.

Picture if you will, a grown man running round a public park in ankle length dive boots kakhi shorts and a white polo shirt, dripping wet, or a grown woman in bright red shorts with mud all over her backside. When we dropped off a couple of baskets at Hammy's place later that day she said, "did you get any pictures?"

Unfortunately no, we didn't.

Another release

2009-04-25T20:21:00.003+10:00

We did another release today, four ringtails, a boy and three girls.

The three girls were originally looked after by a friend of ours, Maree. She and her hubby Dan moved onto an acreage at Eudlo last year and didn't have an aviary to keep the girls in, so we looked after them until they were ready for release.

We took a drive up to Eudlo today to release them. It was our first visit to Maree and Dan's place and we'll definitely be visiting again. If you've heard of Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, Maree's place is basically past there and turn left. It's nearly all bush, seventeen acres of it.

Anyway, we picked a couple of trees and out came the ladder. I don't really like heights, despite the fact I have a pilot's license, so I made sure the ladder was securely lashed to the trees before hoisting the possum boxes up.

The picture below shows the second tree that we put the boy up in. It was the lower one, so the photo doesn't look as impressive and I don't look as brave.

Just before we left to come home we noticed that there was some activity in the boxes. The possums had already started exploring their new surroundings. It's always good to see them having a look around like that.

Maree and Dan are both musicians, so I just had to photograph this. It's their Treeano.

It's been a while

2009-04-04T21:05:00.002+10:00

I've been a bit slack updating this blog just lately. It's not so much that we haven't had animals in care, it's just that when I'm not studying we're both working. Doing blog entries seems like I'm slacking off.

So, what have we been up to this week, wildlife wise?

Donna and I are doing junk mail deliveries twice a week, the money isn't good, but the exercise is fantastic. Anyway, we got a call from one of our local vets on Tuesday afternoon. Not just any vet, but the best vet in the Redlands. Raby Bay Vet surgery had a lorikeet that had hit a car. I think the paperwork said it had been hit by a car, but in my experience it's usually the other way around. It's pretty hard to hit a bird when you're stopped at an intersection and I know heaps of people that have had that happen, including us.

So, all sweaty and stinky after three hours of walking we dropped into the vet surgery the next day to pick up this poor lorikeet.

We had a basket with us for the bird, but I'd forgotten my gloves, so for safety's sake I borrowed a pair of welding gloves that they had in the surgery. Think of that what you want. The lori was in a bird cage inside another cage, the little buggers are escape artists, and he was really noisy, more so than most lorikeets.

I put my gloved hand in the cage and grabbed our patient. If you've ever read the story of the monkey grabbing nuts from a jar you'll understand what it was like. Once I had the bird in my fist I couldn't get it out of the door of the cage. Angie, the vet nurse that was helping me, took the top off the cage and helped me put the other glove one. I then got a good grip on the bird with my left hand, but unfortunately he had a good grip of my right hand and wouldn't let go.

David, the vet, came to the rescue and grabbed the bird by the head, always the best thing with any wild animal, and we quickly had it in a basket.

He's now in a cage with the other lorikeets as he's still a juvenile. He'll be in there for a couple of weeks until they're all ready for release. In the mean time, they're all going to be the subjects of my animal behaviour assignment at uni.

Early this afternoon I was sitting on the back bumper of the car having just finished the junk mail delivery and I got a call from Hammy who runs Pelican and Seabird Rescue. She was at Raby Bay Vet surgery and they had a tawny frogmouth, could we take it? Of course we could, not only are we planning to specialise in tawnies, but it was a good opportunity to catch up with Hammy as she's been pretty busy just lately since the oil spill in Moreton Bay.

Hammy dropped the tawny round (not a frogmouth owl as the paperwork said, tawnies are not in any way related to owls) and the topic of the oil spill came up. Seems some high up pen pusher with no knowledge or experience of wildlife in the EPA took exception to Hammy trying to educate him, and now one of the most experienced pelican people in south east Queensland has been pretty much black listed.

In my limited experience as a wildlife carer, that seems to be the perception that the government has of wildlife carers. They see us as a bunch of amateurs. The fact that the people making decisions in the EPA are mainly admin people that don't have a clue shows you what carers are up against. A lot of carers have more specialised knowledge of certain species than scientists, and that's saying a lot considering I'm a science student. I can honestly say that the scientist appreciate that knowledge if the public servants don't. I say that as an ex-public servant too.

Anyway, rant over, Hammy showed us a bird that had come into care but unfortunately hadn't made it. It was a juvenile white tailed tropic bird and it has to be one of the most gorgeous birds I've ever seen, the pictures on the link don't do it justice. Unfortunately, I've never seen one alive, but it's now on my to do list. The one Hammy had was on its way to the Queensland museum, so other people will get to see what a beautiful bird it is.

Later in the day, we got a call from Donna's friend Lesleigh who had had a call to pick up a possum, species and age unkown. Lesleigh isn't a carer, but often does rescues and was wondering if we had room for another possy. We don't so she rang back to get that one passed back to the RSPCA.

Shortly after that we got call from Lisa, another friend of Donna's, who is also a possum carer. She had a lorikeet that had hit a car, sound familiar? She brought the little guy (or girl) around and it's now downstairs in a basket being kept quiet.

We seem to have have quiet periods, then busy periods in waves as carers. This week was sort of a busy period, nothing like what it'll be when the silly season hits in spring, but busier than it has been.

It definitely keeps you on your toes. Life would be so boring without a challenge.

You never stop learning

2008-12-08T14:19:00.002+10:00

When I first started this blog back in August last year I was a new carer. The blog was, and still is, intended as a sort of diary about our experiences as new carers. It's a way of letting other new carers see what we've been through.

One thing I've never meant it to be is a resource for people to learn how to be carers. That's why it concerns me a bit when I look through the visitor stats and I see common search terms like how to look after a baby possum (especially when it's someone in New Zealand), or what to feed a possum. Those kind of queries suggest to me that people are trying to look after baby animals themselves with only the internet to help them. The poor animal is doomed from the start, especially if they're taking as gospel something I wrote a year ago.

Take this post for example. I wrote that entry back in November last year after we'd had a really bad run with ringtails dying on us. Two had died from dog attacks within a day of us getting them, one died from bloat and three died from the stress of being in care. One of those last three we suspect died in sympathy because the one that died of bloat was its companion.

We were recently on the phone to an experienced carer from our organisation and she mentioned that particular blog entry. Someone else had told her about it and we got the impression that, the person that told her about it thought all six possums had died of bloat. There was also the feeling that we were saying there is nothing you can do for bloat, which is not true. Reading back through that entry I can see where someone assume that they'd all died from bloat though.

That's where you need to take whatever you read on the internet with a grain of salt. What you read may be perfectly true, but not tell you all you need to know, or it might be complete rubbish.

We care for a lot more animals than we blog about. If we blogged about every animal we got in, it'd bore the tits off you. There's also the fact that people can read things the wrong way and you get unfounded critiscism for that. A good example of that is the lorikeets we have that we've never written about and I'll tell you why.

Because so many people like to feed wildlife, especially birds, and because so many people feed them rubbish like bread and honey, birds like lorikeets often end up in care because their feathers haven't developed properly. The young ones that come in like this usually don't have their primary flight feathers or tail feathers. We call them runners, because that's what they do. All they need is time in captivity with plenty of the right food and the company of other lorikeets and they'll eventually grow those feathers.

Now, if you google lorikeet runners you'll find plenty of forums that will tell you that these birds probably have beak and feather disease and should be euthenased. Our birds don't have beak and feather I can tell you that for a fact, but I thought it was easier to just not mention that we had runners than to chance the ire of those that think they know better. Interestingly, the people that seem to shout "beak and feather" the most are the ones that like to keep birds as pets, locked up all their lives and usually with their wings clipped.

The title of this post is you never stop learning and it's very true. Every time we get a new animal in we learn something different. What we knew a year ago about caring for wildlife is nothing compared to what we know now and what we'll know in a year's time will be massive by comparison to today.

So if you're reading this blog to help you become a carer don't, it might be wrong or you might misunderstand it. That goes for this entry too.

The animals are too important to not get proper help for them if they need it.

Up close and personal

2008-12-04T11:33:00.003+10:00

One of the good things about being a wildlife carer, especially if you're part of a network, is that you get to see a lot of animals that other people don't get to see up close and personal, even if they visit a zoo.

I've mentioned the tawny frogmouths before. These two aren't actually the same ones as in my previous entry. Moe and Curly have gone to another carer who has more room for them and we got these two in exchange. I'm in the process of building a 3m x 2m x 2m aviary, so hopefully the tawnies we now have will stay with us for a while.

There used to be this perception of Australia that it had kangaroos hopping down the middle of the street and everyone had one as a pet. Well this little fellar isn't a pet, but you wouldn't think so to look at him. In fact the bag hanging up next to him contains another joey.

These are probably one of Australia's most recognisable birds, especially their call. What? You can't tell what they are? They're young kookaburras.

Now I can fully understand if you don't know what these are. My first thought when I saw their noses was that they reminded me of the weasels from Wind in the Willows (the David Jason version). They're bandicoots a kind of marsupial (related to possums and kangaroos) that feeds on the ground. They use those long noses and front claws to dig and have a backwards facing pouch (unlike possums and roos) so that it doesn't fill up with dirt when they dig.

The roo, the kookas and the bandicoots were all photographed at Natasja's place (our co-ordinator) when we went to exchange the tawnies and pick up some lorikeets on the weekend. The pictures below were taken at Alf and Liz's place yesterday. Alf and Liz are raptor carers and live on about half an acre. Some of the aviaries on their property are huge, and they need to be because of the size of the birds they're caring for.

This is a boobook owl. They're also known as a mopoke because of the sound they make. Tawnies are sometimes referred to as mopokes as well, mainly because people don't know the difference. I reckon they're just as cute as the tawnies.

Last but not least, a one winged wedgetail eagle. She can't fly obviously (if she tried it'd probably be in circles), but other than the amputated wing she's a perfectly healthy bird and so will be used for breeding. You can tell from the size of that ladder just how big a bird she is.

While on the subject of eagles, Liz was telling us about another eagle she had a few years ago that had one eye and so couldn't be released. That particular bird used to follow her everywhere around the yard during the day and was a pretty accomplished flyer. Even though she couldn't hunt properly because of the missing eye, she still had the hunting instincts. She used to fly off and steal tennis balls from the kids up the road while they were playing. The kids were regular visitors and thought it was pretty cool having their ball stolen by something other than a dog.

Flying lessons

2008-11-21T11:39:00.004+10:00

We're looking after three little tawny frogmouths at the moment. There the cutest little buggers you can find, but being meat eaters they tend to be a bit messy and smelly, so the cage has to be cleaned out daily.

With most birds that's just a case of pulling the base out of the cage and changing the newspaper, but with these guys they like to sit on the bottom of the cage, even though they have a couple of perches in there.

What I have to do is take them all out one by one and put them in a bowl and clean the cage while they watch me.

These little guys are getting to fledgling age now so, as you can imagine, they're not content to just sit in the "nest" and watch anymore.

They like to explore.

That's Larry still in the bowl. He's the heaviest of the three, but he'd been attacked before he came into care and has a few feathers missing. As a result, he's not as confident about trying to fly as the other two. Moe is sitting on the bike closest to their cage and Curly is the one on the left.

Curly is the most confident and competent flier at the moment. Shortly after this picture was taken Moe tried to fly to the cage. He made it, but landed a little too low down to get in the door and I had to pick him up and put him in. Curly hopped over to the other bike, flew to the cage, landed in the right spot, but fell into the cage. I had to carry Larry.

That was Wednesday. Yesterday (Thursday), Curly ended up on the handlebars, with the other two on the front wheels. Larry's getting more confident, but I still ended up carrying him the rest of the way. Moe made another attempt at the cage, but missed again. Curly was the star of the show.

You can't see it in those pictures, but there's another cage on the floor to the left of the bikes with a basket on top. I was standing in the doorway watching and Curly decided to fly toward me and landed on the basket. When I moved he flew back to the bikes, then he decided to attempt the bench behind the cage. You can just see a stick on there, it's a perch I'd removed from the cage to give them more room and I think that's what he was aiming for.

He almost made it.

I don't have any kids of my own, just two grown up stepdaughters, but I've now got an appreciation of what it's like to see your kids walk for the first time.

Gapeworm

2008-11-21T11:15:00.004+10:00

A bit of a sad post today, but it's something quite common so I thought I'd write about it for those readers that might be new to caring.

The young magpie in the picture below came into our care on Wednesday afternoon. He'd been sitting on the ground in someones front yard for three days and we got a call to go and pick him up. He seemed lively enough when Donna got him home but wouldn't eat.

Magpies, crows, ravens, butcherbirds and peewees all belong to the same family, family corvidae, as such they tend to all eat the same kinds of food, usually insects and grubs. This causes a problem, especially in the younger birds, because a lot of grubs and worms are the intermediate host for gapeworm, a nasty parasite that is usually fatal if not treated.

We get a lot of young crows and magpies in care at this time of year and we've got into the habit of automatically checking and treating for gapeworm. The poor little fellar in the picture above was too far gone when we got him and he died the next day. He had the worst case of it I've seen so far. If you look below his tongue, near the base of the beak, you can see what looks like vermicelli, that's the gapeworm.

It basically kills the bird by filling up their throat until they can't swallow food anymore and they starve to death. As young birds need lots of food while they're growing they won't last long if they can't eat. They might even still look in good condition just before they die. It's easy to treat if you get to it in time, but that often doesn't happen because the bird is already past it by the time someone notices something wrong and calls a carer, or takes it to a vet.

So if you're reading this because there's a young bird (of the feathered variety) that's been on the ground in your yard for a couple of days and you're concerned about it, get it to a vet as quick as possible. It may not be too late.

No more room

2008-10-26T15:57:00.003+10:00

We doubled the number of different species in our care yesterday. As well as the ringtails, the brushtails, the lorikeets and Gloria the cockatoo we now have four new additions to the family. Three of them are only youngsters too, so they need to be hand fed.

First up we have this young Figbird.

It has a funny way of shaking its head from side to side with its mouth wide open when you go to feed it, but it's still very easy to feed. When it gets older it may have darker feathers and a bright red spot around the eye, unless it's a female, in which case she'll stay pretty much as she is now, just bigger.

Then we have a young Crested Pigeon.

These are often incorrectly called a Topnotch pigeon because of the crest. A Topnotch is a different species altogether. This little fellar is the hardest to feed. Although it's calling for food, I can hear it now actually, it won't take food from us. We have to actually pick it up and open its beak while someone else drizzles Womabaroo Granivore formula into its mouth with a syringe.

Then we come to this young crow, with a face only its mum could love.

Talk about easy to feed, open the cage, show it the mince and it opens a beak so wide you could drive a bus down it. And the satisfied sound it makes as the food goes down is one of the reasons that Donna and I like looking after the black and whites (magpies, butcherbirds, etc). All the corvids that we've looked after seem to be talking with their mouth full when you feed them, as though they're thanking you for each morsel.

Last but not least we have this poor fellar.

This is a Tawny Frogmouth, they're often mistaken for owls, which they aren't and we've even had one mistaken for a Kookaburra. I can understand why people think they're owls as they look similar and they're nocturnal. I'm not sure why someone would think it's a Kookaburra though, you've only got to look at the beak. We've had a few Tawnies in care and haven't had much luck with them, usually because they've been accidentally poisoned.

That's not the case with this one though. The reason its head is tilted to one side is because it had a collision with something and it's brain damaged. If it doesn't improve within a couple of days it will most likely have to be euthenased unfortunately. It's not eating at all at the moment. It'll open its mouth for food, but anything you put in just falls out again. It's pretty alert and the eyes even react to light as they should, but it just sits there with its head to one side unless you disturb it.

All of these birds should hopefully be passed on to other carers soon as we just don't have any room for them, we've run out of cages and baskets. I've got to admit though, they're all pretty cute, even the crow in a strange sort of way. If we did have the room for them they'd probably stay with us. The only trouble is, most of them are communal birds and need to be kept with others of their kind, especially when they're young. Keeping this lot would mean getting more of the same. That's why we have six Lorikeets.

Baby animals

2008-08-22T13:20:00.004+10:00

I can't complain that I have nothing to do at the moment, I seem to be spending most of my time feeding animals.

We got a call late yesterday to pick up some noisy miner chicks from a local vet. Donna went to pick them up while I was, you guessed it, feeding the animals. She was amazed at how small they were. I'm amazed at how much they can eat and how much they poo. Those white dots on the cloth under them are about half the size of the poos these little guys do each time they get fed.

There's a knack to feeding them too. I get a piece of their food in the tweezers, then I gently tap the side of their basket. The movement makes them think Mum or Dad has just returned with some food and they open their mouths. Then I just shovel it in and repeat until the bowl is empty.

As you can see from the pics, they aren't even old enough to stand up yet.

Then we have the ringtails. That's Pinky on the left and Yoda on the right. Perky is of exploring somewhere, probably on Donna's back.

The ringtails are about the easiest to look after now. All we have to do is put their food in the cage and let them at it. It would be nice if they didn't make so much mess though.

Last but not least, we've got Gollum, the brushtail.

We were bottle feeding him for a while, but it wasn't working out to well as he had to work to hard to get his milk out of the bottle. We've now gone back to using a syringe to feed him which works much better and we also know exactly how much he's having in each feed.

As you can see in this picture he's also having some solids. That's a mix of banana and honey, with a little bit of milk (Divetelact) that Donna's feeding him. He's also starting to lap his milk, which is a relief. The last time I tried him lapping he was so slow it was painful. This morning when I tried him it was much easier.

This is the beginning of the silly season for wildlife carers as we come into spring. Unfortunately, we can't take on too many animals at the moment as I'm off to Armidale for uni next month, for two weeks. With Donna working there won't be anyone able to devote the time to feed baby animals as much as they need, so we need to hold off getting anymore until I get back. The possums will be okay by then and the noisy miners will have been moved to another carer.

On the phones

2008-08-17T11:03:00.002+10:00

I mentioned recently that Donna and I had attended BARN's AGM. One of the things that came up at the meeting was the fact that they're desperately looking for volunteers to man the rescue phone occassionally. At the moment, Natasja our president does it on the weekends, Binnie our secretary does it during the week and two of our support members, Len and Barbara, do one afternoon a week.

Donna suggested we volunteer for one weekend a month. After spending the last twelve years answering telephones at work, I wasn't too keen on doing it at home, even if it was for a good cause.

Well anyway, we're on the rescue phone this weekend.

We've found the easiest part of the job is dealing with the people that call up. A lot of the calls are from the RSPCA, but most are members of the public. Sometimes we give advice on what to do before a carer gets there, but usually it's just a case of getting their details, then getting a carer out to them.

The hard part is getting carers in some areas. Parts of north Brisbane are a bit of a blackspot for us and we don't like to send anyone too far, or too often. On a Saturday morning it's not unusual to get a carer when they're out doing their shopping too. In that case, they have to finish their shopping, go home, then go out to the rescue.

We've had a couple of funny ones too. There was the call passed onto us from the RSPCA about a bird with a broken wing. The contact number they'd been given turned out to be a butcher's shop and they knew nothing about an injured bird. I suspect any birds he may have had were beyond help from us.

Another one was a kookaburra that couldn't fly that was in someone's front yard. The carer that went out called us back to say it was actually a tawny frogmouth. The colouring is very similar in the two birds, but the beak is completely different.

We even had a call last night from the ambos. They'd found an injured ringtail possum in a shopping centre carpark while attending a patient. The ambo was a New Zealander and said the possum didn't look like any of the possums back in NZ. The NZ possums are actually brushtails imported from Australia and are now a pest.

It was actually nice to get a call back from the ambo later to make sure the carer had managed to find the possum. They'd had to take their patient to hospital, so couldn't hang around. She thanked us for what we do, which seemed funny considering all that they do, but it was certainly appreciated.

It's definitely a good learning experience and we'll be doing it again next month. It's coming into the silly season (spring) so it's probably going to be busier too.

Now if only we could get more carers that are available for rescues and some more telephone operators for the other weekends.

If you live in Brisbane and are interested in becomming a wildlife carer, or would just like to help out as a support member, check out the website here, or give us a call on the rescue number 0405056066.

Balls

2008-08-11T21:02:00.004+10:00

Just a small piece of advice if you ever see a dead kangaroo by the side of the road.

Okay, this won't apply to a lot of our readers, since you don't have roos in your country, but it may have some relevance to other animals too.

How can I put this in a nice way that won't offend our more masculine readers? Some animals are proportioned differently to humans in the bollocks department. The reason I'm making this statement is because of the rescue we got called out to tonight. It's okay, David Attenborough's Life of Mammals finished last Monday, so we weren't bothered about having our TV viewing interrupted.

It was a report of a kangaroo that had been hit by a car. The person reporting it was worried it may have a joey* in the pouch.

The three of us, Donna, our friend Lesleigh, and I drove about five minutes away with our rescue kit ready, including my university disection kit in case we had to cut a joey out of the pouch. We drove around looking for a dead roo and finally found one underneath the Armco, pulled over, and jumped out to check it over.

I grabbed it by the tail and pulled it further from the road. Rigor mortis had already set in, something we have a bit of experience in with rescues this weekend. While Donna and Lesleigh were walking down with the rescue kit from where they'd parked the car out of the way, I pulled the poor creatures legs apart for a better look.

Standing up, the animal probably wouldn't have come up to my waste, but between its legs were a pair of male parts of the anatomy the size of my fist**. There wasn't going to be a joey here.

We couldn't find any other kangaroos in the area, so we assumed this was the one that had been reported.

So next time you find a dead roo and you think that big lump is a joey in the pouch because you think they're too big to be balls, doesn't mean they aren't balls.

It doesn't make you any less of a man. Honest. They're built different.

-----

* Joey refers to the baby of any marsupial, not just kangaroos. They do tend to look very similar when they're really young though. We often get asked if we look after joeys. Well, yes we do, just not the kind of joeys you're thinking of.

** Okay, maybe not the size of my fist, but definitely a big handful. Check out page ten of the last BARN newsletter to see what sort of proportion I'm talking about. That's a ringtail that Mandy's holding.

The Musketeers

2008-08-08T10:42:00.002+10:00

I promised the other day I'd post some pictures of the lorikeets, so here they are.

I could watch these little fellars all day, the way they climb around the cage, preen each other and chatter to you if you say something to them.

They're really messy birds though. Unlike most birds that lift up a bit, relax and poo straight down, the loris prefer to lift their tail, squeeze and shoot it out to the side. That red sheet in the background is covered in lorkeet poo and so is the ground outside the cage. We had a Japanese exchange student visited the other day with my in-laws to see the animals, he very nearly got pooed on.

We actually have four birds, but the other one was on a lower perch at the time and it was too hard to get a decent picture with all four of them in it.

As you can see in these pictures, they're all juveniles. You can tell that by the fact their beaks are still a bit black. The adults have completely red beaks. Once they're a bit older and all healthy they'll be released together so they can look after each other.

New animals

2008-08-04T21:13:00.003+10:00

We've got some new members of the Porter family at the moment.

On Saturday I did a rescue at Redland Bay for a concussed lorikeet, nothing unusual there. Because it's a juvenile lori we'll be keeping him for a while, so we've got some company for him, another three lorikeets. We call them the three musketeers, yes there's four of them, there were four in the book/movie too. Pics to come.

While we were at Natasja's picking up Athos, Aramis and d'Artagnan we mentioned possums and Natasja said she had a little 100 gram brushy that was looking for a carer. He'd only been in care for two days after his mum had been attacked and killed by a dog. So now he lives with us.

Our first thought on seeing him was that he looked more like a kangaroo joey than a possum. We've called him Gollum, for obvious reasons, even though he won't always look like that. He's one of the easiest possums we've had as far as feeding is concerned. As soon as he see's the syringe full of Divetelact he's wide awake and we usually have to refill it.

Cute or what? Hard to imagine he'll be 4.5 kg when he's fully grown.

We always have tissues handy when we feed him, he gets milk all over him.

A funny old bird is the pelican

2008-07-27T21:08:00.002+10:00

It's bill can hold more than its belly can.

As you can see from the pics below, we did a rescue of a different kind today. This morning was the day of the first Brisbane Area Rescue Network's (BARN) annual general meeting. Three of our members, Hammy, Nat and Mandy, are also part of the Pelican and Seabird Rescue organisation. Naturally, the rescue phone didn't stop ringing during the meeting, and neither did PASR's phone.

Someone who lives nearby where these photos were taken at Cabbage Tree Point had reported a sick pelican and Hammy was going down to check it out. Donna and I jumped at the chance to go and help.

By the time we got there (bloody sat nav) two birds had already been caught, simply by grabbing them by the bill. The birds at Cabbage Tree Point are used to fishermen and so are pretty tame, unlike in some places where they get stressed out by dogs and kids, so they weren't that hard to catch.

One of the birds had a fish hook in its back. That was removed and the bird released after being given the once over with a metal detector to make sure it didn't have any other fishing tackle in it.

The other one was quite ill and out of condition, that's the one that Hammy had got the call about. It was transported up to the wildlife hospital at Australia Zoo. Yes, that's right, Steve Irwin's zoo.

A third bird had a hole in the bottom of its bill. It needed to be caught and assessed as well. Bill catching this one was going to be a bit harder as the birds were now getting a bit wary. So while one person kept them occupied (bribed them with fish), a snare was set up.

Once that was all done, it was a simple matter of luring the right bird over the snare and catching it. We gave it the once over, or I should say Hammy and Wes from PASR gave it the once over while showing us how to do it, then after painting a "P" on each wing it was released by Donna.

The reason for the "P" was that if someone rang to report a pelican with a hole in its bill, the person taking the call would ask if it had a letter on its wings. Then they'd know it was okay as it had already been checked. Different organisations use different letters.

Hopefully, we'll get to do a few more rescues like this one. It's a lot more interesting and challenging than picking up an animal that's already been restrained and put in a cardboard box for you. It's also something that not a lot of people around here are doing. Also, Hammy's a great teacher and really gives you a chance to get involved, rather than just showing you.

Donna checks over the bird with a metal detector while Hammy (kneeling) and Jen restrain it. Jen is lucky enough to live just up the road from here and she was the one that reported it.

Donna carries the sick bird to the rescue truck for its trip to Australia Zoo. If you think that's a big bird, it's actually quite underweight. Most of them are bigger.

Hammy lays out the snare.

Caught. Wes chases the snared bird, the one second from left without its feet under it. It all happened so quickly I nearly missed photographing it.

Wes holds the bird while Hammy checks it over. Notice the hole in its bill, as it's only a small hole it'll totally recover.

Just to prove I didn't hide behind the camera the whole time. I got the chance to handle the bird as well. Hammy thought she'd found something in the bird until she realised the metal detector had found my watch and wedding ring, and probably my mobile phone, wallet and the zip on my jacket.

The bird after realease wearing her P-plates.

If you've ever wondered how to tell the difference between a male and female pelican, have a look at them when they're standing in a group. The males have longer bills, long enough for it to be noticeable.

Rescues, sort of

2008-07-20T21:24:00.004+10:00

It's been a bit of a funny weekend rescue-wise.

Yesterday we got called out to a possum that was lying on its back. Details were a bit sketchy, but we got the impression it was on the ground somewhere, so it didn't sound good. A lot of the calls we get come via the RSPCA, or other organisations, so by the time BARN ring us it's a real case of Chinese whispers.

Before we left home Donna rang the person that had called it in and the possum had now moved on to its side. OK, so it's moving at least, that's a good sign.

When we got there, we were shown where the possum was and he was not a happy chappie. He was in the crook of a tree, about three feet from the ground, having a sleep. Donna poked him a couple of times to see if he was alright. He turned around and hissed at her, threatening to tear her limb from limb if she didn't go away. He'd just found a nice place to sleep that happened to be not very private that's all. We're still glad the lady called it in though.

Today we got a call from Natasja from BARN, asking if we could assist with a wallaby. It had been hit by a car, but was still mobile. She needed help to round it up. Donna found it after we'd been traipsing around in the bush for about ten minutes, but it didn't want to be caught and didn't seem to be injured at all so we left it alone.

The picture below shows where the wallaby was.

If you're wondering about the warning, well about three hours later, as we were feeding the animals, I could feel something irritating my leg. It was itching, bordering on being painful. I went inside, dropped my pants and found a very small tick (and I'm not talking facial twitch or what clocks do). The little bugger was only about two inches from my willy.

Donna removed it, and some of my skin, with a pair of tweezers and the irritation is now gone. The funny thing is, we have a tick remover thingy on our car keys. I showed it to the instructor on the first aid course I did last weekend and he asked if I had to use it yet. I hadn't, but we tried it today and it didn't work because the tick was too small.

Anyway, after all that was done and the animals were all fed we had one more wildlife related job to do. We had a ringtail possum brought to us a couple of weeks ago that was a bit out of sorts. We don't really know what was wrong with Eliza, but she definitely got better while she was with us, so this evening was release time.

Ringtails are aboreal, meaning they spend nearly all their time in trees. It's unusual for a ringie to be on the ground, brushtails will get down sometimes, so will koalas, but ringies tend to stay in the trees as much as possible.

We found a place to release Eliza, close to where she'd originally been picked up. We opened up her drey and placed it close to a suitable tree. This particular tree looked perfect, it was big, had a nice rough bark that she could get a grip on, had plenty of branches that she could use to get to other trees. In other words it looked like possum heaven, a real des res.

She sat in her drey for about five minutes and had a bit of a sniff, then out she got. Did she run up the perfect tree we'd selected for her? No, she jumped out of her drey, ran along the ground and shot up the smallest tree she could find.

Hopefully she'll be alright. We released her on dusk, so she's got all night to find herself somewhere to sleep during the day.

So, after all that, two rescues and a release, and the only wildlife we brought home was a blood sucking parasite.

We've now got two empty cages waiting for someone to move in. One will most likely end up with our three little baby ringtails that we've had since last weekend, Yoda, Pinky and Perky. The other, we're hoping to get some birds in it.

We'll post some pics of Yoda and the girls soon, but I'll leave you with this thought. Someone said yesterday when talking about Yoda, "it's because he's so ugly that he's cute".

TV's no good for you

2008-07-07T22:28:00.004+10:00

Donna and I, in the short time that we've been wildlife carers have been called out to a few rescues. We've had to turn down a few for various reasons, but we've had a few calls just lately that we've attended, including a dead possum that may have had a baby in the pouch, but turned out to be a juvenile male.

Last Friday we got called out to pick up a lorikeet that couldn't fly. Most of these calls come via the RSPCA, so they're third or fourth hand by the time we get the details. This one, like the juvy possum was no different. The only details we had were that it couldn't fly and it was a business address.

We put the necessary gear in the car, programmed the GPS for the correct address, and off we went. The GPS took us via the scenic route and we arrived at a private address that was running a pest control business, totally legally I should add.

We walked in with our gear, looking totally professional, as we usually do (think Oscar nominees) and were told that the lorikeet we were to rescue was contained.

This is always a big relief when you do a rescue. Rescue is a bit of a misnomer, because nine times out of ten the person calling it in has contained the animal and it's just a case of assessing the animal, then taking it away.

This particular animal had managed to do something that we hadn't experienced before. We get a lot of lorikeets that have concussed themselves by flying into buildings, trees, windows or cars, this one had managed to collide with a TV antenna, something that takes either a bit of accuracy or some really bad luck. He (or she) had pierced his chest and was bleeding a fair bit.

We gave him a quick assessment, then put him into a basket along with Donna's leather gloves that he wouldn't let go of, then took him to a local vet that we know is really good with wildlife, and especially birds. If you live in the Cleveland area in the Redlands then I can recommend Dr David Banks at the Raby Bay vet surgery, he really, really cares about the animals he's treating.

With the three of us holding our patient, Donna holding the legs, me holding the head, and Dr Dave doing the important stuff, our poor patient was given a thorough examination.

The hole in his chest was close to the crop, so the doc used a syringe to put a saline solution down into the crop to see if it had been pierced. That was OK, so he gave the little guy a couple of injections, one was an antibiotic and the other a pain killer.

We left with high hopes for the bird and some antibiotics to feed him every day for the next four or five days. Oh, and instructions to flush out the wound with salt water.

We kept that up religiously for a few days, and I think he was starting to get used to us. He certainly quietened down each time we gave him his 0.1mm of antibiotics. Unfortunately, Donna checked on him last night and he hadn't made it.

We had high hopes for him, but sometimes, as the vet said, they show their gratitude by dying on you. This little guy at least gave us the opportunity to learn from him. We got some experience in handling a bird that is capable of (and has a reputation for) inflicting some pretty serious wounds when they bite. We also got some experience in treating a bird that had a pretty serious injury. So, as sad as it was, his passing wasn't for nothing.

Just so he's not forgotten, here's a picture of him being spoon fed a couple of hours before he passed on.

Soft Release

2008-06-30T13:15:00.007+10:00

On Friday night we soft released from our house our two ringtails Widdle and Puke. (Steve named them) Widdle is the male and Puke the female. They moved out pretty quickly and one is still returning to the drey to sleep while the other has already found somewhere else but we have seen them every night having a great time feeding on our trees and our neighbours.

Their aviary with the rope leading out.

The rope leading to the first tree and across to our shed and then into the lilly pilly

Widdle who is still returning to the drey.

Persistance pays

2008-06-17T14:47:00.003+10:00

Remember the duck that got away? Well Lesleigh rang Donna yesterday afternoon to say she'd caught it.

Apparently she went round to drop off a BARN brochure at the property where the duck had been in the first place and it was back. This time she enlisted the help of Hammy, from Pelican and Seabird Rescue Inc. Hammy has a lot of experience in catching injured birds when they don't want to be caught.

The bird, and Australian Wood Duck, was taken to one of the local vets who is very good with wildlife, where it had part of its foot amputated. Lesleigh looked after it last night and it's now with a more experienced carer.

Three rescues and a night of caring in the space of three weeks. And to think, Lesleigh originally only signed on with BARN as a sponsor.

Oh duck!

2008-06-15T10:04:00.002+10:00

We got a phone call from BARN yesterday for a rescue.

Unfortunately, Donna was at work and had the car, so I couldn't do it. Natasja asked if I thought Donna's friend that did the course with us would be able to do it. I told her there's only one way to find out, so she rang Lesleigh.

Well Donna got home from work about ten minutes later, so we could have done the rescue. She rang Lesleigh, who was just about to head out and was all excited about doing only her second rescue. Her first one was the lorikeet the day she did the carer's course.

It turned out the animal to be rescued was a duck that was limping and couldn't fly. Now it didn't occur to me at the time, but I've seen this kind of thing in ducks before. I'll tell you about that in a minute.

Donna got a call from Lesleigh later on. "It wasn't contained Donna".

Now I'm not saying that if you find an injured animal you should try and catch it before we get there. It's just that we've gotten used to people doing just that. A rescue usually means turning up at someones house and them handing over a cardboard box full of bird or possum.

So Lesleigh and two other people ran all around someones backyard (a very large one apparently) trying to catch a duck that didn't want to be caught. I'm sure the Benny Hill theme would have been playing in the background.

In the end it flew away.

As I said, I've seen this kind of behaviour in ducks before, usually when they have young nearby. The father will feign injury to decoy a threat away from his kids. I watched a whole family of ducks hold up traffic one day as they crossed the road. Mum was in front, followed by four or five ducklings, then Dad. Dad was dragging one foot and looking really pathetic. As soon as they got to the other side he resumed waddling as normal.

Ducking clever if you ask me.

Houdini

2008-05-29T22:03:00.003+10:00

I mentioned the other day that we had a new addition to the family, a rainbow lorikeet.

If he comes back we're going to name him Harry, after Mr Houdini. The little bugger escaped yesterday. No evidence that Xena or Dizzy got him, so I'm pretty sure he slipped out of his cage and did a bolt. I should have suspected when I saw him putting his head between the bars and doing chinups at the top of the cage.

Looking back, I'm not sure what tune he was whistling at the time, it was either the theme from Mission Impossible, or The Great Escape. Either way I'm sad to see him go, he (or she) was the best looking lori we've ever looked after and he taught us (and our friend Lesleigh) a lot in his short time with us.

I'll be getting the fencing wire out and filling in some gaps in the cage this weekend.

Maybe we should have listened to Messers Cleese and Palin and nailed him to the perch.

I miss him, he was the best looking bird, and most friendly, we've ever had in care, not that I don't enjoy looking after the ugly ducklings. After all, I was one :)

Be careful what you wish for

2008-05-25T10:18:00.006+10:00

Yesterday was a training day for BARN members.

Donna and I have been caring for wildlife since about August last year, but it's nice to have a bit of a refresher, there's always something new you learn. Three of the people attending the course were friends of Donna's from college, all of them new members. A lot of the people attending had signed up as support members, but did the course to see what it's all about. Some of those are now thinking of becomming carers after their experiences yesterday. We also had a couple of members from the Pelican and Seabird Rescue organisation.

The course was a mix of theory; such as what the animals eat, how they should be housed, how to assess them, etc, and practical; the hands on stuff.

Everyone had a chance to assess some animals and to try handling them. The possum hold isn't as easy as it looks the first time you try it. Take it from me, the first time I tried it last year the possum managed to turn around and scratch my hand. Everyone that tried it yesterday seemed to manage better than I did.

At the end of the day while we enjoyed the sausage sizzle, Lesleigh, one of Donna's friends expressed and interest in doing a rescue next time Donna or I get called out. She didn't have to wait long before her wish came true as Natasja rang us that evening to go and pick up an injured lorikeet. More on the lorikeet at a later date.

The class during a break.

Brett and Natasja assess Banjo the brushtail, our newest member of the family.

Hands on. Natasja shows members how to assess a heron.

Brett and Natasja demostrate how to assess a python. This same snake tried to attack me through its tank several times last weekend. Thank God for the glass between us.

Binnie demonstrates how to feed a young ringtail possum. There were plenty of offers to take it home afterwards.

Brett cooks the snags while Sam makes sure he doesn't burn them.

It was all too much for some people. Matilda does what kangaroos enjoy the most.

A few changes

2008-05-18T15:39:00.003+10:00

We've had a few changes since my last blog entry.

Below is a crested pigeon that we've been looking after for a couple of weeks. He doesn't do much other than just sit on the perch all day. He's definitely eating, drinking and pooing, but apart from that, the only time we see him move is if we get to close to him.

He's now with another, more experienced carer who is assessing him. It seems he may be brain damaged. We know he can't fly, he doesn't even attempt to.

Those of you that have been following this blog from the beginning will know all about Lucky, pictured below.

Well Lucky has finally moved on. Because he's been through so much with us, he's become a bit attached to us. There's no way he could be released from here as he's not feral enough. He'll spend some time with another carer that will help to make him as feral as possible, then he'll hopefully be back out in the wild.

Now that Lucky has vacated the aviary he's been living in for the past few months, Clive has moved in there. The poor little bloke didn't have a good introduction to outdoor living as we had a storm last night, his first in the aviary. He was okay after the storm and we could hear him jumping around and exploring his new abode.

With Clive's old cage being vacated, we had room for someone else, so now Banjo has joined the family. Banjo is another brushtail possum who weighs about 500g at the moment. I'll post some pics of him once he's settled in a bit. We thought we'd give him an Australian name, so we named him after Banjo Patterson.

Wrong identification

2008-05-03T11:58:00.004+10:00

We often get called out to pick up a certain type of animal and it turns out to be something different. Someone might ring and say they have an injured ringtail or glider and it turns out to be a brushtail. They often confuse peewees with magpies. I even know of one case where carers were called out to pick up a king brown snake that turned out to be a tiny legless lizard.

So, when I recently came across the picture below I thought it was quite funny, something I, and I'm sure a lot of other carers, could relate to.

However, in the course of looking for the picture again to use it in this blog, I found the following picture.

Seems like this one might circulate for a while in a few different guises. There's more about it here. Apparently the Australian one was not the original.

Incidentally, if that possum in the first picture had truly just been found and was not friendly, there's no way I'd be holding it like that. One hand round the neck and shoulders and the other on the base of the tail so they're facing away from you is the safest way.

Peek-a-boo

2008-04-19T21:31:00.003+10:00

We try to handle the animals as little as possible so they don't get to used to us. It seems to be working.

Clive knows it's dinner time, but he's not coming out of his drey until some food is put in his cage and I'm not standing there scaring him with a great big camera.

He has a habit now of peering around the corner at us like he is here. Of course once there's fresh food in the cage, all bets are off. He'll fight you for a nice piece of bok choi.