Dog Community

Wildlife Rehabilitators?

Posted : 12/4/2007 5:39:29 AM

Anyone involved in wildlife rehabilitation? I've been wanting to for pretty much my whole life and am almost in a position where I can finally do something about it. I'm going to take a course early next year and we'll start fostering sick or injured wild animals. We'll likely be doing the cranky adults because we both work full time and the babies need to be fed sometimes as often as every 2 hours and are heaps of work. The nice thing about living in a country full of marsupials is that when the mothers get hit by cars or otherwise injured, often the pouch young is completely unharmed. If someone gets to them quickly enough and they aren't too young, they have a pretty good chance of survival. And pouch young are about the cutest thing you'll ever see. Baby kangaroos are to die for. I want to get into raptors, myself.

ron2

Posted : 12/4/2007 9:36:00 AM

I'm not sure if she still comes to the forum on a regular basis but Kennelkeeper has been directly involved in the caretaking and rehab of wild animals, ranging from a white Bengal Tiger to Gray Wolves.

TAOofGoldyShep

Posted : 12/4/2007 10:44:47 AM

I volunteered for a rehabber in Florida (cleaning cages, feeding, transporting, whatever, etc). She had a few different critters (fox, heron, wild turkey, turtle) but she specialized in birds-of-prey and otters. While I was there she had hawks, owls, kestrels, bald eagle, and two otters.

The cage for the otters was amazing. It had a separate area to hustle them into while cleaning their pool and main area. Otter poo is no picnic to clean.

She was forever paranoid about some other organization coming into the area, as there is only so much grant money given to her by the state. Financially, the rest is donations drummed up via continuous community education, annual large events, small local events and open houses. Structures on the property have been donated and or built by volunteers. Vet services were also donated/pro bono. Maintenance and care of animals by her and volunteers. Many other items are donated as well, like: newspapers to line small cages and crates, food (meat for birds-of-prey), and more.

As rewarding and educational as it was for me, I would see her physically sick a lot due to the amount of work and over extending herself. Because if there isn't help, the work and care still needs to get done.

And, while I was there, I got to release a Barred Owl back into the wild. What a great experience!

erica1989

Posted : 12/4/2007 11:23:23 AM

I know a couple rehabbers in my area, but have not really done much on my own - besides foster a baby bunny for a night. I mostly pack them up, load them in a van and wave goodbye as they go over to the rehabbers.

I've handled almost every type of wildlife in my region, and some can be very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

I think it's really cool, and if I had more time I would volunteer with some of our rehabbers - they are very special people. Kudos to you for wanting to do it!

MissMandy

Posted : 12/4/2007 11:26:10 AM

I volunteered for a wIldlife Rehabilitation Center in Illinois for about 3 years. I cleaned cages, prepared food, and various other odd jobs. It was a truly rewarding experience, and I think it would be a fanatastic thing to get involved with. Especially living somewhere as cool as Australia!! Go for it!! Big Smile

Cita

Posted : 12/4/2007 1:25:19 PM

Apparently there's a dire need for rehabilitators in CT, where I'm moving, so as soon as I'm settled I hope to get involved :)

corvus

Posted : 12/8/2007 1:00:57 AM

That's great, guys! In my state, we have one organisation that generally deals with every rescue. They have a bit of government funding, but not much. They have rescuers that go and get the animals and foster carers that take care of them until they are ready to go, or at least ready for a larger amount of freedom. Pouch young are about the cutest thing nature has ever invented. The organisation I'm joining does specialist courses when you want to specialise. Most of our animals are pretty harmless as long as you have a stout pair of gloves, but obviously snakes are a bit of an issue. You're not supposed to handle them unless you have done a venomous snake handling course. At work, we're not allowed to handle them at all period, regardless of the snake species or whether people have done courses or not.