Volunteering at Native Animal Rescue

If you love it share it!

April 18, 2023

NAR Bobcat — Australian Bobcat ready for release

Native Animal Rescue – Day one

Volunteering at native Animal Rescue was a particular dream of mine. This season Native Animal Release release one bobcat, two fawns, and eight ground squirrels just to give an idea of the many releases that NAR works toward for all of the wildlife
that arrive at our door. I arrive for my volunteer induction after driving myself from Fremantle to Malaga a way out of the city, on some empty Australian roads. Working with Australian animals is something I have always wanted to do and I’m quite excited. I receive my induction chat along with the other new volunteers at the Fauna Rescue centre in Malaga (pronounced Ma –LA -ga) Western Australia, just North of Perth.

Snake warning

Jackie, our very friendly volunteer co-ordinator has warned us about local venomous snakes. They are mainly Tiger snakes – and you need to look out for them at all times. As an incentive, we get free passes to all Perth’s parks and gardens if we volunteer enough! This is a nice support gesture from the local government who also provide the land for the centre. Jackie has recently progressed to a part time paid position here as volunteer co-ordinator, after a mere seventeen years of unpaid work. She is doing a sterling job.

Tour of Native animal Rescue

I enjoy a tour of the animals in for rehab. I meet and greet a range of birds, reptile and marsupials, Next I am on food prep duty. For each animal there is a menu on the wall. A square indicates the size of the chunks of food each species can eat.

You then need to locate the meal components for each species. This could be anything from beetroot to peppermint branches. You chop it to the required dimensions and then fill a bowl for the corresponding animal.

Luckily, chopping up fruit and veg with a blunt knife is something I’ve been doing for years at home. I was certain that I must excel at this task.

Peppi the possum

In the afternoon, I do a bit of computer support and help edit some of Native Animal Rescue’s educational leaflets. I feel my standing is improving and I cuddle a brush tailed Possum called Peppi as a reward. He was unfazed by the attention as he peeped out from his pillow case. Most of the animals here are wild and will hopefully be re -released, so only a few can actually be handled at all. A bit of a blow for a keen volunteer.

I asked about taking photos of the animals but it is against policy. Apparently some people take them and put them on Face Book

Two admissions this afternoon. A Bobtail arrives, a kind of fat tailed Iguana. Some kid’s dog found it in the yard.

He seems fine, given a quick check over and then released. The next admission ia a number 28. A no 28 is a very pretty multi-coloured native parrot. It’s name is actually a ‘number 28’. I wondered if there was a reason for this numerical description or whether it simply shows a distinct lack of imagination on the part of the parrot discoverer. This parrot was sick as, well, a parrot. He was suffering from something called ‘beak and feather’ which is very serious for birds and can be fatal.

Rogue volunteer

I watched Kelli the veternary nurse, feeding a baby Woylie (a type of endangered mini kangaroo) with a small tube of milk. He had fallen out of his mum’s pouch and was looking very scared and very cute. Later, a reunion is attempted.

One of the young volunteers, Daniel, had gone awol without permission which is not allowed in the reserve. It turned out he’d gone home in a huff because someone had advised him how to improve his sweeping up technique. You have to be careful how you give domestic guidance to the male of the species.

Day 2 at Native Animal Rescue

First task of the day, fix the Bandicoot’s breakfast. The Bandicoot is a long tailed pointy nosed marsupial. It small and very cute. Sometimes people mistake it for a giant rat. This does happens in reverse on occasion and giant rats can be mistaken for Bandicoots. This happens with a receptionist at a local business who calls the rescue centre for Bandicoot retrieval services. Animal recue arrives and find her petting a large rat and feeding it her lunch in the office. It’s Aboriginal name is a Quenda. It is very fast on its feet and is partial to a cube or two of cheese.

Bandicoots R Us

Feeding the babies

Next we fed the baby honeyeaters ( a sort of humming bird)and the Wattle bird with delicious insectivore mince. Mixing this mince is a daily activity. You must wear surgical gloves while doing this. It is then fed to the baby birds with plastic tweezers. It does not smell the best.

The parrot with the deadly ‘beak and feather’ disease is no better. Sadly he is to be ‘euthed’ later in the day. I find out parrots are called no 28s because their call sounds like they are saying ‘no 28!’. Nothing to do with parrot identification fatigue which was my first assumption.

The long necked tortoise, which looks like a half snake, half tortoise arrangement had perked up considerably. A boat propeller causes a nasty wound. Gaffer tape is working, and it is starting to heal. He drew blood with a lightening whitebait snatch from one of the volunteer’s fingers with his razor sharp beak. She had badly underestimated his rate of recovery.

Catching Cockatoos

The highlight of the day today was catching the endangered Black Cockatoos from the large aviary. They were due for release back into their flocks. Matching each bird’s DNA to existing wild flocks means that they can return to exactly the right place.

They are big handsome birds, the males have pink eye rings and big black plumes on their heads. We had to try and catch them with a giant net. A sort of Tom and Jerry chase sequence ensued. The Cockatoo expert guy ( a sort of Cockatoo version of Crocodile Dundee) was pretty impressive with the parrot net. His comprehensive knowledge of these rare birds was considerable. Nesting sites, mainly on large ancient trees are rapidly being destroyed. I cuddled Peppi the Possum some more in the absence of anything else available that wouldn’t bite me.

The very tolerant Peppi the brushtail Possum

Home from NAR

I drove home from my day’s work, happily listening to the Ozzie radio stations. They tend to favour mainly eighties soft rock tunes with titles such as “I’m TNT I’m Dynamite,” and ‘I love Women in uniform.” I’ve never heard so many eighties hits that were never hits here. R&B has not conquered the West Coast airwaves round here yet.

Next day at Native Animal Rescue

Frankie the possum makes his escape bid

I arrive to find that a poorly Pelican has pulled through. This is good as he is a beautiful specimen. Apparently he was found in a bad way at Ascot. Not, presumably wearing an unfeasible hat and putting bets on.

There are lots of places in Australia called after places in England. Practically all of the North East is represented in New South Wales when miners from this area emigrated to work in the gold mines in the 1800s. Newcastle, Stockton, Wallsend, Killingworth even Jesmond and Gosforth have been reincarnated. In Western Australia, it seems a more Southern contingent also came down under. I noted Guildford, Highbury, Caversham and of course Ascot.

NAR involves the community

We had some disadvantaged young people visiting the centre today. This is one of the partnerships NAR engages in to benefit the community. They were a small group of mixed race teens. Not the most forthcoming of youngsters. They tour the premises and even get to cuddle the ever tolerant Peppi, They wouldn’t really speak unless interrogated in a jovially confrontational manner by Kelli, the vet nurse, which they seemed to like. One was an aboriginal boy called Jeff who was well over six foot tall and built like a line backer.

Jeff lives with eight brothers and three sisters in a close knit community. He regularly goes out tracking animals in the bush. He did respond to Kelli’s terrier like approach but wouldn’t look at anyone directly. ‘What does diurnal mean again then Jeff? If I see you in the street I’m going to ask you that question and I will expect an answer!’ Looking someone in the eye during conversation is apparently not the thing to do in aboriginal culture. Incidentally did you know that the Digeridoo is for MEN ONLY to play. So it was OK for Rolf Harris.

Native Animal Rescue – Feeding the Possums

I feed the possums some flowering Eucalyptus. There’s nothing quite so cute as seeing a little possum face looking excited at the arrival of dinner straight from the Australian bush. Towards the end of the afternoon, I asked one of the nice volunteer ladies if there was anything else I could do.

‘You can give the possum a new tail’ she said. ‘It usually has one in the bottom of its log that needs changing.’ I looked at her a askance. “A new tail?” I enquired. “A new tail she affirmed.” She was looking at me as if I was one stubby short of a six pack. “A ta-ul ” (you need to say this in a broad Ozzie accent) she elucidated slowly. ” Oh…. a towel!” I finally got it. Slight breakdown in communications resolved.

Native Animal Rescue is a model of wildlife care in Western Australia. If you are down Malaga way why not call in on one of their open days and meet the fascinating animals in their care.

Subscribe to my travels

Never miss an update subscribe for more offers and information

Nominated Best Travel blog by Cosmopolitan. Created by travel writer Elaine Wilson