Caring for wildlife

I am a wildlife foster carer, registered with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA). I also happen to be a veterinarian.  However, as a veterinarian, my responsibility is to assess and treat wildlife within a veterinary clinic, or hospital exclusively. If the patient is deemed suitable to go into foster care, I require registration as a foster carer to continue to care for these animals at home.

In many cases, charities such as Wildlife Victoria or Vets for Compassion will reach out to foster carers either directly, or via an online platform, when they become aware of wildlife that requires foster care. This may be following a call-out to a sick or injured animal, or because a case has been logged by a veterinary clinic after wildlife was presented for veterinary assessment by a member of the public. In some cases, veterinary clinics may have a list of local foster carers, or shelters in their area, who they can contact directly.

For me, the animals that I take into care are often those that were initially presented to my veterinary clinic by a member of the public. In many cases, such as with juveniles, they are not big or independent enough to be released. We try to get them out of the clinic or hospital setting as soon as possible. The sound and smells of dogs and cats is highly stressful for them.  

Each registered foster carer operates under a registered wildlife shelter. The wildlife shelter I operate under is managed by my friend Emma, a veterinary nurse and previous work colleague. Emma has many years of experience caring for Australian wildlife and is a wonderful resource and support.

I currently have four juvenile ringtail possums in my care. These were passed onto me by Emma, after she had an early inundation of juvenile ringtail possums on a single day last month.

There are two males in the group:

Ringo, the largest of the group, weighed in at 102g on the first day. As he is likely the eldest of the group, he is the most confident and happy to go out exploring. However, if I am within reach, he prefers to cling onto my hand (I quickly started wearing woollen gloves) and participate in whatever I have to do at the time (often feeding the smallest possum, Poppy).

Caper, the smaller male (70g), is very brave, despite being the second smallest in the group. He is always the first out of the pouch and loves taking off on adventures. He famously escaped his enclosure one night. I found him attached outside the cage door, either trying to get back in or encouraging Ringo to join him. Ringo couldn’t because he was too fat to fit through the gaps in the cage door. Caper is also very sweet and does a wonderful job looking after ‘baby’ Poppy when the other two are off playing.

   
Ringo and Caper; Poppy on Ringo's back

And two females:

Trixie (short for Cicatrix) was noted to have a healing wound on her tail (hence her name). She has rounded ears and is extra fluffy like a teddy bear. She is also very cuddly. She is smaller than Ringo (84g on day one), but demonstrates that she can do anything he can do. You will often find them following each other around the branches within their enclosure… and later snuggled up and sound asleep in the possum box…

Ringo and Trixie

Poppy is the littlest (68g on day one) and still learning how to be an independent possum. She is sometimes brave enough to venture outside the possum pouch, but if it all becomes too much, she will climb onto the back of one of her bigger ‘siblings’ for security. The others generously piggyback her around. She is very sweet and getting bigger and stronger every day.

Poppy

At this stage, the juveniles are mostly drinking milk (Wombaroo possum formula), supplemented with native blossom and a small amount of fruit (apple, strawberries and blueberries). Ringo, Trixie and Caper drink the milk from a dish… and sometimes go swimming in it.... Poppy is not yet drinking from the dish but will drink from a small syringe. I feed her every four hours during the day when I am not at work. Otherwise, I will feed her twice in the morning before work, (5am and 7am), twice in the evening (7pm and 9pm) and once overnight. She has started to nibble on blossom and fruit by herself.

The biggest job with these four currently is sourcing native blossom. At least every second day, I will drive around the parkland looking for flowering native trees and shrubs. At the moment, the menu is a selection of eucalypt gum, wattle and their number one favourite, Grevillea. There is also plenty of washing to do as the towels in their carrier must be changed daily. Anywhere outside their possum box is a toileting place.

Ringtail possums can be released once they reach 500 to 600g. However, they must always be released as a bonded ‘friendship group.’ A ringtail possum released alone has an incredibly low chance of survival. Fortunately, these four have their own friendship group already, and I am sure they will be very good at looking out for each other out in the wild. We always release possums with a home so as not to put pressure on the existing possum population at the release site. The plans for two wooden possum houses are currently being drafted. These four should be ready for release in late spring.

If you come across what appears to be orphaned wildlife, please do not intervene initially. It is best to monitor and wait to see if the parent returns as they may be out looking for food. If you feel the animal is in danger from a predator, e.g from a pet dog or cat, put gloves on to reduce the chance of leaving your scent on the animal and move to a safer place but not too far away. Continue to monitor over the following hours to see if the parent returns. If not, you can carefully place the animal in a warm, dark place: e.g. a jumper or blanket within a cardboard box, and take it to your nearest veterinary clinic or emergency hospital.

If wildlife appears injured, immediately take it to a veterinarian or contact Vets for Compassion or Wildlife Victoria for advice.

Please be aware that there are specific guidelines regarding orphaned or injured birds following the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in Australia.
Please refer to the guidelines on the DEECCA website

Image credits: Amy Sledziona, with our thanks.      

   
Ringtail possum quarters