Wildlife Heroes Podcast Clementine Liebenberg

In this episode we are near Braidwood in the Southern Highlands of NSW, visiting Dr Howard Ralph and his team who run the Southern Cross Wildlife Hospital. Dr Ralph is one of few wildlife specialist vets in the state. This clinic is set in remote bushland, and carers from far and wide bring their animals here for treatment they can't get anywhere else. The team works late into each night to meet the demand.

We hear from:


Howard Ralph - veterinary surgeon and director of Southern Cross Wildlife Hospital
Tania Duratovic, veterinary nurse
Several volunteer wildlife carers
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In this episode we visit Higher Ground Raptor Centre - the most significant raptor rehabilitation centre in Australia. Peggy McDonald is a national treasure and she talks intimately about her home and work.

In Australia, 13 of our 35 species of raptors (birds of prey) are listed as threatened, with every individual holding high importance to the survival of their species. Data collected and analysed by NSW NPWS over the past decade show that the work of raptor rescuers and rehabilitators is vital to the conservation of raptors in Australia. Unfortunately, raptors are significantly affected by human development, as well as changes in climate.

In this episode we also talk about the NSW Volunteer Wildlife Rehabilitation Strategy from NPWS, and how critical it is that wildlife carers keep abreast of the latest rehabilitation techniques here, and overseas.

 

We hear from:


Peggy McDonald, wildlife carer for 40 years and founder of Higher Ground Raptor Centre
NPWS project officer and veterinarian Dr Aditi Sriram from the Biodiversity and Wildlife team

 
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On Sydney's suburban fringes, Koalas are having a resurgence - and this is great news. But it is happening right where the slow crawl of urban development is encroaching on their habitat. Meanwhile on the Liverpool Plains, a farmer collaborates with a researcher to break a few truisms about Koalas - and help the species to survive extreme weather events in the process. We look at the cutting edge Koala research that could make a difference to conservation futures, knowing that Koala numbers in NSW have been declining rapidly,  with disease and habitat loss being the contributors.

We also touch on the Koala Strategy, which is an initiative of the NSW government that aims to stabilise and then increase koala numbers. This is to be done through a range of actions such as creating reserves, decreasing koala roadkill events, increasing wildlife carer and veterinary training and funding research.

We hear from:


Valentina Mella, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney
Robert Frend, NSW Liverpool Plains farmer and citizen researcher
Morgan Philpott, Hawkesbury WIRES koala rehabilitator
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Bats are a keystone species on the east coast of Australia, with a critical role to play in maintaining our diverse flora, and keeping our forests healthy. They’re also misunderstood and feared as carriers and spreaders of zoonotic disease. Bats are profoundly vulnerable to increasing extreme weather events, dying in their tens of thousands in each of our ever intensifying heatwaves.

In this episode we visit Kukundi Wildlife Shelter to understand more about the value of bats in nature, and hear some successful rehabilitation stories.

We hear from:


Vanessa Barrett, Flying fox carer and science communicator.
Susan Smith - Sydney Wildlife volunteer
Dianne Jenner - Volunteer coordinator
Jodi Lewis - Sydney Wildlife volunteer
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Data collected by NSW National Parks & Wildlife over recent years is revealing the tremendous results of wildlife rehabilitator efforts - with nearly 700 species and 85,000 individuals being rescued a year. This rescue data (from 2014 to 2018) has recently been made public as part of the NSW Volunteer Wildlife Rehabilitation Sector Strategy and can be found on the NPWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Dashboard on the NPWS website.

To discuss the data and what it tells us, three guests from the team who have done the painstaking work of analysing that data join us - and they’re excited by what they’ve found.

We speak with:


Vanessa Wilson, Project Officer
Ron Haering, Senior Project Officer
Peter Stathis, Manager of the Biodiversity and Wildlife Team
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Catastrophic events are all too frequent - flood and fire all take their toll on wildlife and wildlife carers are always there to pick up the pieces. So how do we best recover and look after ourselves, and our animals, after we've been on the front line of a traumatic wildlife rescue emergency? We hear from:Jessi Jean Drew Smythe, WIRES volunteer and bat carer, studying environmental biology at the University of Technology in Sydney.Lyne Page, TAFE senior counsellor, volunteer field psychologist with Red Cross, and a member of the disaster response network with the Australian Psychological Society

Further information:Two Green Threads – advice and mental health support for wildlife carers

Wildlife Heroes - for carers, from the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife.

Please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 if this conversation has brought up strong feelings and you are having trouble coping.
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