Rescuers inundated

The heavy rain has had a devastating effect on local wildlife, writes Amanda De George, of Backyard Zoology

As chair of the Illawarra branch of WIRES, Heather Milroy, is a difficult woman to pin down. It’s not for want of trying though and we reschedule our chat several times due to her being called out on wildlife rescues.

“We’re just starting to find them now because while it was all happening they were in hiding and so were we. We couldn’t even go out on rescues because of all the roads being closed,” she explains when I finally catch her in a rare moment of quiet.

Compared to some regions, the Illawarra escaped the most recent spate of torrential rain relatively unscathed with only localised flooding. Still, the ramifications of weeks of constant rain has had a devastating impact on birds in particular.

“We’re getting a lot of sick birds in, that have been starving because they couldn’t get access to food, particularly nectarivores because all the nectar’s been washed off the flowers. The insects have all suffered from the weather so the whole food chain has been affected.”

WIRES Illawarra Possum and Glider Coordinator, Guiliana Ferrari, confirms that possums have also suffered catastrophic affects.

“The biggest casualty has been ringtail possums. They’re a smaller and much more delicate possum” she says. “They make their own nest called a drey. Undoubtedly some of the dreys would have been smashed by the torrential rain.”

As with birds, getting out to feed normally has also proven to be an extremely difficult task. If the possums do make it out to feed, the type of long-lasting rainfall we have been having impairs the ability of both ringtail and brushtail possums to correctly discern the level of nutrients found within leaves. This leads them to either not eat enough or to not eat at all.

“They have been coming in underweight, lethargic, and the majority with pneumonia. By the time people find them it’s too late.”

For WIRES’ hard-working volunteers it can sometimes feel like too much, and Heather and Guiliana say the work can be heartbreaking. The number of actual rescues for this period won’t be known until after the weather has died down. But amongst the frenetic pace, the emergency trips to vets and around the clock feeds, there are good moments too.

Guiliana recalls a particularly lovely reunion between a brush tail possum and her joey.

“I looked after bub for the day and brought her back at night and sure enough after not long, these two eyes appeared about three houses away and she made a beeline for the baby. They were calling to each other and the joey jumped onto mum’s back and off they went, up the tree.”

If you find a sick, injured or orphaned native animal, contact WIRES on 1300 094 737. You can also donate directly to the Illawarra Branch of WIRES, by using the online form at WIRES.org.au and listing Illawarra in the notes section.

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