Rehabilitate Wallabies & Other Native Wildlife

Since opening the rehabilitation facility years ago, we have certainly had a variety of animals come through.  We wanted to share with you a couple of unique stories of visitors we have had to the facility in the last few months.

We received a call to the Sydney Wildlife hotline about a large eastern grey kangaroo that was in a suburban backyard.  The member of the public said that it always appeared at 7:30am each day so suggested that was a good time for us to try to catch this poor kangaroo to relocate to a more suitable area.  Early the next morning, two Sydney Wildlife volunteers arrived at the location to be ready for the kangaroos visit.  As it is a wild kangaroo, it was decided the safest way of capturing it was to use a dart gun to reduce the stress on the animal as well as ensure we were able to catch it quickly.

As expected, at 7:30 the kangaroo appeared and one of our experienced macropod carers was able to dart her on the first attempt.  Once the drugs took effect and she was sedated, we were able to put her in a large macropod bag and transport her to the rehabilitation facility allowing her to wake up in safety and we could assess her condition and behaviour. 

After a few days of observation to ensure she was feeding correctly, was in good health and not showing any signs of odd behaviour she was able to be released into the company of a wild mob of Eastern Grey Kangaroos.

Our facilities have proven to be excellent for some species in their rehabilitation phase to the point where they never want to leave.

One bandicoot in the large aviary was unable to be found when we were trying to catch her for release. After two attempts of a few people each time trying to find the bandicoot with no luck, we were puzzled.  We knew she was in there as the food was being eaten and there were small freshly dug holes around the floor of the enclosure from her searching for and eating insects. We decided to put a camera in the aviary to make sure that it was in fact the bandicoot eating the food.

The cameras showed after just one night that it was in fact a very healthy bandicoot.

Now more determined than ever to catch the bandicoot three Sydney Wildlife volunteers spent well over half an hour tryng to find the bandicoot and just when we were about to give up one of the volunteers disturbed her out of a very well camouflaged nest.

Being able to provide such a natural enclosure enabled the bandicoot to exhibit its survival techniques which resulted in her being able to evade captured for soo long even though we knew it was there.

This is a testament to how your ongoing support and generosity allows us to provide these animals with such a good foundation for a successful release. 

Remember our report back in November last year on The Wombat Warrior?

After all the battles Mulan won when only a little joey, she has continued to thrive and has now begun her rehab phase in the Sydney Wildlife Rehabilitation facility.

Rehab for some animals has many stages as they are in rehab for quite a long time. Mulan first started in a small secure enclosure that she was unable to escape from and also included plenty of artificial shelter and protection from the elements. In this enclosure Mulan started off living in the pouch she had been sleeping in at her carers house and over time, started to dig burrows and rely on the safety of the pouch less and less and the burrow more.

Once completely independent of the pouch, the next phase for Mulan was a larger enclosure with no artificial sheltering except to protect any supplementary food from the elements.

Before this could happen, the large enclosure needed to be completely cleaned out as it was full of weeds, abandoned fencing, carpeting, old shelters and plenty of rubbish. For such a large transformation, we needed to ensure we had the right tools and plenty of resources to complete the task at hand. So immense was this task, it took place over several working bees and lots of people power to get the enclosure ready for the next phase of Mulan's rehabilitation.

To provide plenty of natural food for Mulan to eat, we needed to purchase and lay turf on a portion of the enclosure and allow it to grow prior to her taking up residence. This would ensure the grass was established enough and continued to provide natural food for her.

About an hour after moving in to her new enclosure she showed us how ready she was by starting to dig a burrow into one of the large dirt mounds. She has now dug 3 burrows throughout the enclosure to suit her needs. She can sometimes be seen basking in the sun amongst the bushes at the entrance of one of her burrows.

She has adapted really well to this phase of her rehabilitation. She is now rarely seen out during the day and if she is out and gets a fright, she retreats straight back to her burrow to hide.

Mulan now weights a whopping 12kgs and will remain in care until she reaches around 20kgs.  

Mulan would like to thank you for your ongoing donations as without them, she would not have such a interactive enclosure enabling her to learn all the natural behaviours she needs to master before returning to the wild.