Dr Meg Rodgers: Putting pelican pouches back together is ...
it's quite a tricky exercise.
So we're just giving the pouch a good wash.
Hi, my name is Meg and I'm the senior veterinarian here at WA
Wildlife.
This pelican came in earlier this week ...
Sorry little friend.
She was entangled in quite a few fishing hooks.
This process takes a little while.
This one was tangled around this pelican's wing. And it's quite a
devastating injury that this pelican has suffered.
The hooks come through the pouch here and has lacerated the
pouch.
So this is just some temporary staples to hold the pouch back
together.
There's a few different muscle layers that you need to reattach
to each other. And so it's a very fine delicate procedure.
These three barbs have gone and caused quite significant wounds
to her wing, and really deep wounds that we're not sure will
heal.
You can see this one is still quite deep, but they have
started to heal up quite well. There's a big section that's
been cut through, which if that is completely cut through, it
can be quite a devastating situation for these guys,
because this is what gives them their elasticity when they're
trying to fly.
We do as much as we can and we can't save them all
unfortunately. A lot of the time, if it's a flighted animal
and we can't restore it's flight then unfortunately the only
option for them is often euthanasia.
I'm happy with how the surrounding tissue is looking.
So, I'm hoping for a positive outcome with that one.
You hardly ever say the same thing twice. So, there's a lot
of different things that come in that need help. And you just
have to try and figure out a way to save them. So there's not
textbooks on how to do this, you just have to be a little bit
innovative and figure it out.
It's always very rewarding to see an animal that has come in
in such a state that previously they wouldn't have been able to
have anything done to them to be able to fix them.
Don't be fooled. Come spring time she'll be feisty.
Now seeing them, putting them through a bit of surgery and
ongoing rehab and then seeing them release at the end of the
day. It's very rewarding. Hard work, that's for sure but it's
what we're here for.
Karen Clarkson: Hi, my name is Karen. I'm the rehabilitation
manager here at WA Wildlife.
Myself with all the volunteers get these animals ready for
release.
We have 30 permanent residents here. That includes two dingoes,
three emus, a wombat.
His favorite treat is corn.
Snakes as well.
So this is Raffy he's a 13-year-old red tail black
cockatoo.
He's an extremely gentle bird. So he's absolutely perfect for
our education program. So he can have interactions with children
with the elderly.
Hello.
The whole purpose is just to teach the coming generation how
to look after the environment and help these animals.
It's quite unique. I mean, if you get a chance to pat a wombat
but there's no better experience I think!
Dean Huxley: My name is Dean Huxley. I'm the manager here at
the WA Wildlife.
We have admissions virtually coming through the door daily.
So it can be anything from a small honeyeater that's flown
into a window, right up to an emu that's been burned in a
bushfire in a paddock.
The reason these animals come to us in the first place is because
of motor vehicle accidents and cat attacks and habitat
destruction and all these different things that we as
humans cause.
We want people to come down, have a hands on opportunity with
wildlife so they can come down and they can hand feed emus, and
they can interact with the dingoes and they can interact
with a wombat and get that connection with the animal, get
that love for that animal.
And then walk through our hospital and see a surgery of a
pelican having hooks removed and have that click moment that 'oh,
my behavior causes that outcome.'
And then they'll go away with a slightly better appreciation for
how they can help wildlife.
Dr Meg Rodgers: We had a little duck come into us from Seabird
Rescue. They rescued this duck that I think had had a hook
through the bottom of its mouth. And so this whole section had
been ripped open underneath and there'd been some trauma to the
tongue as well. So we're just trying to do what we could to
repair him. Unfortunately, with that particular one, the tongue
had become too damaged. So a lot of the tissue necrosed
underneath, so we did have to make the tough decision to put
him down.
There's never a dull day. We've done all sorts of different
things here. We've done caesareans on bobtail lizards.
We do orthopedic repairs, we do skin grafts, we cut hooks out of
stomachs of pelicans. There's always something new to do.
We're getting about 4,000 animals a year. I imagine it
will only grow from here, but that's what we're here for and
we're excited to be able to provide that service.