Where do you live? I live in the Inner West
How long have you been doing this? A few years now, I think I joined in
around 2015
How did you get into this? A colleague of mine at Macquarie University is with Sydney
Wildlife Rescue and I had been chatting to her about this and decided "why
not", so I did the course with my best friend and the rest is history.
What is the best thing? The best moments are when you release an animal back into the
wild, or when you find out that they have been released and see some photos.
The other great moments are when you get to see an animal turn the corner,
maybe they are a recalcitrant feeder and they start eating, or they start to
fly. Just something that suggests that they are going to make it. And with every release the world just seems a bit brighter.
What is the worst thing? The saddest moments are those when you have had an animal in care for
some time and it doesn't make it. The last one that I lost, a little ringtail
girl was super upsetting for me as I had had her in care for about six weeks. But
you remind yourself that without you she had no chance, at least this way she
was cared for and had the best chance possible, and you let yourself cry and
have a glass of wine and some chocolate.
What are you never without? At this time of year - my secateurs! I have a number of hungry
little mouths to feed and you never know where you might come across some good
foliage for food or habitat.
You have a pretty busy lifestyle, does it ever get
hard to balance? I'd be lying if I said no, but the difficulty
is not necessarily balancing work, toddler, pets and wildlife. Sometimes it is
more just finding the energy to go and collect foliage on a really hot
day. Although there was one class that I taught that I
had my son who had been sent home from daycare 30 minutes earlier and two possums, one who needed feeding during class. Thankfully my students were great
about their psychology class being a little unusual. I'm very lucky that I have a great husband who is super involved with
our son which means that I am not forever having to monitor my son in the
possum room when I am feeding them. It would be much harder without him being
so hands on.
You have mentioned that you have a son, what does
your wildlife work mean to you as a mother? It's
really important to me that my son grows up with an understanding of animals,
domestic and wild, and is able to experience some of the fantastic creatures we
have in the Sydney region. I think that it is important that he grows up respecting
the environment and the wildlife and also understands how he can help as he
grows. As morbid as this sounds, he will have an understanding of things like
death and illness and this is something that I think we shelter our children
from too much in our culture. At the risk of sounding like a psychology
teacher, we know that it is important that children are able to develop this
understanding of death and grieving. Really, I don't want him growing up not
knowing what these animals are, or taking them, or their habitats for
granted.
How did you manage when you were pregnant or had a
newborn? I am also on our Training Committee and
towards the end of my pregnancy I really focused my energy there. Then I took
a few months "maternity leave" and then initially went back to the
training committee before going back to caring. The important thing then, and
always, is to do what you can and no more. It is really important to put in
place those boundaries around your limits for your own sanity, but also for the
wildlife's well being. I currently only care for baby ringtail possums as that
is what I can fit in and it is easy to take them into work when they need
frequent feeding as they don't make noise or smell.
You said you are a member of the Training Committee,
does this mean you do things in addition to caring? Yep, I am a member of our Sydney Wildlife Training Committee and I
think that I have actually had the biggest impact in this space. I am also one
of the members of our Possum Species Advisory Group who help develop material
for training and also try to determine best practices for care and rescue. I
was also one of two members of Sydney Wildlife who were invited to be part of a
group developing state based training standard for koala care. The other SW
member, Rhonda Pascoe, is our most experienced koala carer and I was there for
my training and syllabus development work.
Do you have any "favourites" that have
been in care? When we first joined, my best friend and I
raised a pair of Rainbow Lorikeet chicks that we named Jack and Jill (no idea
if they were male or female birds). Jack and Jill did really well and were
integrated with a group of lorikeets that were a similar age in another member's
aviary and they were released as part of a new flock. I like to think that they
are having a great time now with their new friends. Otherwise, I do love my
baby ringtails and they are all special, they each look a little different and
have different quirks. At the moment I have Mary who redecorated her cage because
she didn't like my layout, Kiko who prefers to eat foliage half upside down,
Penelope who just wants to run about the outside of the cages, Ralph who I can
only describe as a lovable goofball and Genevieve who is new into care but
likes to drink her milk with one foot in the dish.
What would you say to anyone who was thinking about
joining Sydney Wildlife?
Please do! We are in desperate need of rescuers,
carers, transporters, office volunteers and more. There seems to be a
prevailing belief that you can only be a wildlife carer or rescuer if you have
a big house (that you own) in an area near bushland, don't have kids or pets,
can drive and don't work. Please don't let this dissuade you. We rent in the
Inner West of Sydney, we have two indoor cats, a toddler, I work, don't drive and
although we aren't in an apartment now, we used to be in a very small terrace.
Most of our animals don't take up much space, particularly if they are in short
term care and if you have a spare room, a somewhat sheltered balcony, a quiet
corner etc then you can set someone up there. Even if you take in one animal a
month then that is 12 animals that wouldn't have had a chance that now do. Even
if you don't think that you can care, there is always stuff that needs doing. As a non-driver I need people to transport animals to me, some members
need support to collect enough foliage and our office is chronically short
staffed.