Some Rescue Stories from 2010
Flying Fox Rescue
Jacqui Richards
Yet again, Wildlife Rescuers received a call to attend a flying fox entangled in fruit tree netting. Heidi and I attended and found the flying fox had been hanging helplessly, 3 to 4 meters above the ground for several hours. While the entire body was entangled in the netting, both wings remained free. To add to the difficulty of freeing the bat, the netting had also been wrapped around the tree branch.
Balancing upon the top rung of the ladder, I cut the excess netting free from the entangled netting. Due to the difficulty of safely accessing the bat and the degree at which the bat was entangled, we decided to carefully remove the tree branch.
As the tree branch, bat & netting was about to be gently lowered down to Heidi on the ground, a snake fell from the tree onto Heidi’s shoulder before dropping to the ground. Heidi jumped a mile and let out a shriek before realising that the snake was a rubber one. The elderly lady whose property we were on then mentioned that she had placed it in the tree to deter the birds and bats.
She let us know that Heidi was the only 'thing' that it had not worked at all. The netting was removed from the bat which was then taken to Lort Smith Veterinary Hospital for a once over,. It later went to a specialist bat carer.
Luckily, this bat sustained only minor injuries and was able to be released. Heidi eventually got over her fright from the snake, however I am still laughing.
This little female was rescued earlier in the year. A driver on the Hume Freeway had hit her and was dragging her under the car. He apparently stopped and checked under his vehicle then got back in and drove off - still dragging the poor thing along. He only stopped when forced to do so by a female driver who witnessed what was happening. There are no words to describe such callousness. Unfortunately, the witness didn't think to get the registration details of the car.
Rather slow for the last three days ...
(I would rather remain anonymous!)
Woodlands Roo
Friday morning had a poor female kangaroo at Woodlands (Greenvale) which had a completely smashed leg and Laurelle came out to help with her. Poor thing put up such a fight that I was convinced there was a joey lurking around nearby. When I checked her pouch and fossicked around, she had a small teat and not much milk but it was only then that I noticed that her pouch was infested with maggots. All the amount of hand cleaner does not easily remove the sense of them from your nostrils.
On checking either side of Somerton Road to make doubly sure there wasn't a joey, we found what would have been about eight skeletons of kangaroos there of all different sizes - including one that I had marked earlier in the week..
Kangaroo Ground Roo
Later on, I joined up with others to go and search in the freezing cold for another roo with a suspected broken leg out at Kangaroo Ground. We were unsuccessful in finding him unfortunately particularly when it got pitch dark.
Pomeranian
When coming back from that search, I stopped to check what I thought was a possum on the road. It was on a bridge without the wide stopping lane so I had to climb up the side through the vegetation and over the side rail - I wouldn't fall then when no-one was watching, would I???
When I got to it, it was a poor little pomeranian, deceased with no collar. Took him to Essendon Emergency Vet and they scanned him for a microchip which he had, fortunately, and they were going to follow up with the owners and make sure they got his little body back. I hope that happened. I must follow it up because I know how distraught I would be if one of my beautiful little devils darlings was missing.
Merino Sheep
On Saturday, we tried something different - wrangling sheep. Two merino sheep had been 'dumped' in the back streets of Glenroy (or wandered off from someones backyard) and we had fun trying to corral them and get them into a van.
While waiting for reinforcements to arrive, keeping them from running on to the busy road was only one aspect of it. You could virtually hear the knives being sharpened on the whet stones in houses nearby.
Templestowe Roo
Then we went straight to a roo in a vacant block at Templestowe - miles from where he should be - in the absolutely pouring rain - and I had a spectacular fall from grace - well there was little grace about it - I tumbled backwards and somersaulted down the hill (short but steep) to massive enjoyment of all that were there. I believe I distracted the kangaroo long enough for him to be caught. Jacqui and I took him off to Wildhaven to have his sore feet nursed and I got home about ten o'clock that night, still soaking wet.
The Prequel
It was fortunate that this little boy didn't put up much of a struggle at all as everyone was laughing so hard. Similar to a few weeks ago where Laurelle and Leanne and I were out with a darter for an injured kangaroo who disappeared into a large paddock full of gorse and box thorn. When we were carrying her out and I had hold of the heavy end - Leanne and Manfred were carrying the light end - Leanne said, "Look out for that rock." So, of course, on looking out for that rock I tripped over a branch and because they were in front and kept walking/pulling - I had two choices - drop the kangaroo and regain my footing or hold on and take the fall. I held on and landed on my face in the gorse bushes to the raucous laughter of all - except Manfred who was so serious about it all. I landed on my elbow and managed to stop the roo from hitting the deck with me. Unfortunately, it was all to no avail as she had serious injures as so many of them do and also had to be euthanised.
Prequel to the Prequel
Or perhaps Leanne still giggles at the time when we were trying to rescue a roo from a man-made dam which had been lined with thick rubber to prevent absorption. The roo had fallen in and couldn't get out because the rubber was so slippery when wet. Leanne and I slid down the sides towards the water and roo (while at least three burly men watched us from up top) . When we reached the bottom, I didn't hesitate for one second but launched myself into the water and supported the roo and then looked back and saw Leanne dabbling her toes in the water and saying, "Oo oo, it's cold!" Eventually, we got the roo into the roo bag and then we all had to be hoisted up out of the dam by the three burly on-lookers. Lucky they stayed where they were or we could still be down in the dam there because the rubber was so slippery.
I hope they have put the fence up that they promised to do.
Leanne tells a slightly different story - her version has me slipping when I got close to the bottom and falling into the water which I begrudingly admit is probably closer to the truth.
More importanly, after many hours of warming her up, that little kangaroo survived.
No doubt there will be more falls to follow.
