With more injured wildlife coming into care across our region than ever before, The Echo caught up with Kerry-anne Manning, who is a carer and training officer with Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers, to find out what we can all do to help.
Experienced as a nurse, Kerry-anne has been looking after native animals for nearly 20 years, with Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers being in operation since 1992. The not-for-profit network of trained volunteers is active across a very large and biodiverse territory, stretching from Ocean Shores in the north right down to New Italy, and west as far as Tabulam.
‘I started mostly with birds, then I went on to possums,’ she explained.
‘I do flying foxes and micro bats. I’ve done macropod joeys. I do overnight care for echidnas. I don’t really do reptiles, but again, I’ll look after them overnight if they’re going on to the hospital the next day, or to another carer. But these days it’s mostly possums.’
Have you seen many changes over your time working with wildlife? ‘We’re seeing a lot more animals coming into care now, I think mainly because people are becoming more aware of the fact that you can get an animal successfully rehabilitated and back out into the wild again.’
She said most Northern Rivers residents understood the importance of doing pouch checks, and then calling for help. ‘That awareness has been a huge thing, and that’s helped us greatly.’
Game-changer
Kerry-anne says another great transformation has come with the establishment of local wildlife hospitals, a great improvement on the days when the nearest facility was at Currumbin.
‘When Byron Bay wildlife hospital opened, that was a game-changer.
‘It changed everything for us because now we weren’t guessing at things. They were able to do X rays, they were able to give us medications. They were able to give us advice on the phone, if it was out of hours. Then the second wildlife hospital came into being – the Northern Rivers Wildlife Hospital.
‘In between those two we’ve got North Coast Emergency Vets at Bangalow.’
Kerry-anne is based at Cumbalum, right between these three vital facilities. ‘Yes, we are so very, very lucky. We have got so many more positive results going back out to the wild, recovering quickly.
‘I’m still on a lot of Facebook groups where there are no wildlife hospitals, and there are still carers in other areas who are relying on what they’ve been taught, and domestic vets and people that might have done a little bit of wildlife training, but they’re relying on the information coming from the wildlife groups on Facebook to get them through the rest of it.
‘From the carer’s point of view, the best thing is to get the animal into care quickest, so we’ll go to whichever wildlife hospital is closest.’
For animals that need additional care before they can be released, Kerry-anne has warm cribs as well internal and external cages.
She’s currently looking after a number of brushtail and ringtail possums at various stages of recovery.
Kerry-anne Manning works with Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers’ possum coordinator Cheryl Cochrane, and also helps with the mentoring of other possum carers across the region, who share their resources and knowledge to give wildlife in need the best care possible.
Is it true that wildlife carers are often very sleep-deprived? ‘Yes, you’ve got your twelve midnight feed, you’ve got your four o’clock feed, and if they’re small enough, they need every three hours, until they graduate to every four hours.’
Practical ways to help
At the moment there is a continual need for fresh leaves, buds and flowers for possums in care, as Kerry-anne explains.
‘Ring tails have a gut like a koala. That’s their digestive system – they eat solely leaf. So when I’ve got so many of them in care, I’m out every day looking for leaf.
‘People probably see this mad lady out on the street somewhere with a big, long cutter, and that’s usually me just trying to get leaf for these guys. Brushtails we can supplement, feed them with other stuff as well, so it’s not so crucial for them, but the ringtails, definitely, that’s all they get.’
What species are you particularly looking for? ‘Anything that’s native – lilly pilly with the pink leaf at the moment, they love those. The little pink berries. Any type of lilly pilly is good. If they’ve got little tiny budding flowers, that’s a bit of a delicacy for them as well. Eucalypts, cadaghi…
‘It’s a bit of a trial and error, because sometimes you get them used to one thing and then you put something else in, and they go, “Mum, I don’t like that. Where’s the other one?” On the other hand though, our job is to get them ready to be able to release in the wild and learn to eat what’s there.’
Does the leaf need to be fresh? ‘You can probably hang on to leaf for two days, and then you’ve got to start looking at replenishing and getting fresh tips. Especially the younger ones, they’ll go for the fresh new tips.
‘The older ones, they’ll sort of go, “Oh, is that all I’ve got to eat? Well, then I’ll eat it, you know.” But we still like to give them fresh leaf as much as we can.’
So what should people do if they want to help? ‘They can ring our hotline, which is (02) 6628 1866, then the hotline will then give me a call. People can also contact us via our website, at https://www.wildlifecarers.com/, or through our Facebook site.
She says she’s extremely grateful for any assistance, but asks that prospective helpers please get in touch and find out what’s needed before going out and foraging for leaf, to minimise waste.
Volunteers needed
Kerry-anne said there will be new training sessions coming up in March for introductory carers, and there are also voluntary roles for people who don’t have the time or inclination to be so hands-on, including shifts on the 24/7 hotline, social media updates, preparing food, transporting animals between carers and wildlife hospitals, and administrative assistance.
With a footprint covering the largest area for wildlife carers in NSW, Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers currently has about 200 members, and around 100 active carers, but more volunteers are always needed, with educational opportunities happening throughout the year including introductory and advanced courses on possums and other small mammals, native birds, reptiles and flying foxes.
Kerry-anne says it’s a constant challenge to find the resources needed to help the animals.
‘Looking at all the grants that are coming out, that’s our biggest thing. We are solely not-for-profit, and so we rely on generous donations. Some of our donations are on a regular basis, but others come in ad hoc.’
Anyone who wants to donate can ring the hotline on 6628 1866, or click the donation button on the Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers website.
All donations over $2 are tax deductible, with a receipt provided, and a variety of payment options.
Priorities and passion
‘We desperately need funding and someone to help construct aviaries for birds,’ Kerry-anne Manning told The Echo. ‘We also need release carers for possums – we are constantly looking for good release sites.
‘So if you’re on acreage and you’ve got nice native bush around you, with no wild dogs or dingoes, and you’re happy to have a possum release site on there, we provide everything. We provide the training for that six to eight weeks while that possum is being released, then hopefully goes off and lives his best life as a possum in the wild.
‘You would probably only do two possum releases a year, so that’s an easy thing to do.’
She says many people become interested in wildlife care following disasters, such as bushfires and floods, but sustained commitment is rare, although more and more animals and birds are coming into care due to climate disruption.
Could you talk about what sustains your own passion, over the long term? ‘I just have an innate need to want to help them, when they come in,’ says Kerry-anne. ‘To have something tiny – a pinky possum for instance – the eyes are closed, there’s no hair. They need constant warmth, round the clock care…
‘But then to see them get bigger. Eyes are open. All of a sudden they go, “Oh, Mommy, look at that.” And then they can see what they’re drinking, then their hair comes through, and their ears start to pop up, and they get a personality. That’s why I do it!
‘Later you get a message from your release carer that says, “Oh, Kerry Ann, you know, Tommy got released four days ago. He’s came back for the first two nights for a feed. He hasn’t been back for the last couple of nights, everything seems good.”
‘Sometimes possums come back with joeys in their pouches – they’ve actually gone out and become a mum. That’s beautiful.’
Wombat far from home
Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers were in the news last year when an orphaned wombat was brought all the way up from Mudgee by some tourists before they rang the hotline.
The joey was checked over at the wildlife hospital before being shuttled all the way home by volunteers, where she was able to go into care prior to being released close to home.
For wildlife carers, knowing home territory is all-important.
As Kerry-anne says, ‘When you find an animal and take it to a hospital or to a local vet or to a wildlife carer, please don’t do a drop and run, without providing any information.
‘We’re not trying to stalk you. We don’t want to know where you live, but we do want to know where the animal came from, because if it’s an adult marsupial, or an adult bird that has its own territory, we can’t release them. They get euthanised.
‘If a magpie, for instance, goes back into another adult magpie’s territory, it’ll be killed.’
Making a real difference
Kerry-anne hopes that people will think more about threats such indiscriminate baiting, domestic animals and wildlife, and barbed wire, which causes horrendous injuries to flying foxes in particular.
‘If people must use barbed wire on their properties, and they would like to be wildlife friendly and help the flying foxes, they can contact us, and we will come out and put a strip across the top of the barbed wire.
‘It tends to be the top strand that they hit, particularly around dams and fruiting trees.’
She says that while being a wildlife carer can cause heartbreak when there are losses, it’s extremely gratifying.
‘As our head trainer Chrissie says, “You must remember, we are not getting animals in because they’re well. We are getting animals in because they’re injured, sick or affected by humans…”
‘You don’t go into wildlife caring for the feeling of having a pseudo pet, we go into wildlife caring because our goal is to get them back out to the wild in a fit state, ready to resume their life where they belong.’
You can find out more about Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers and get in touch here.
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