Dedication to Wildlife Award

Rachel McInnes has won a WIRES 2021 Dedication to Wildlife Award. She was one of 20 winners chosen from almost 300 nominations. They were selected on the basis of the number of nominations received and the descriptions used in those nominations. She is currently our branch statistics and training officer, on our branch executive, avian co-coordinator and a valued shooter. The citation for her award reads:

Rachel is one in a million! She is a deeply sensitive person and pours this into her work. She travels many kilometres in her role with WIRES and nowhere is too far for her to go or too much trouble to help MOP's and fellow WIRES members. Those who know her are deeply grateful to work alongside her and her kind-hearted nature.

Be on the Look Out for Turtles

By Sandy Collins

The rainy weather is upon us across much of NSW and with that extra moisture it means turtles are on the move.

Turtles often leave the safety of their current watering holes and wander on land, looking for new water sources and, at this time of year, nesting sites in the softer ground.

Whilst on the move they inadvertently cross roads and this is when they are most likely to encounter vehicles and become victims. The most common problem encountered with rescued injured wild turtles is a shell injury.

Shell injuries can be complicated and mean the turtle can be in care for 1-2 years but luckily for local Eurobodalla turtles, the Mid-South Coast WIRES branch has some awesome vets willing to help out.

Recently the branch experienced a spate of turtle road victim rescues due to the wet weather. One particular turtle came from Surfside and upon X-ray to see the extent of her shell injury it was discovered she had 11 eggs inside her. Luckily the shell wasn’t too badly damaged and the staff at Casey’s beach vet were able to repair it.

Now this lucky girl will be in care with reptile coordinator Kay Mallitt for 6-12 months depending on the rate of healing. Whilst in care the turtle will lay her eggs and these will be artificially incubated for 2-3 months by WIRES members who have an amazing success rate with them.

Wasting Disease in King Parrots

A wasting disease is causing king parrots in eastern Australia to lose so much weight that they are too weak to fly. They are very hungry but cannot seem to digest the food they eat.

Veterinarians and Animal Health Australia do not know what is causing the problem or how to treat the parrots. The problem is thought to be contagious and may be spread by bird feeders and perhaps bird baths.

It is not recommended that people feed wild birds but if they do, they should spread the food out so the birds are not too concentrated. They should also use dishes that don’t allow the birds to poo in them while they are eating, and clean the dishes used every day.

Ref: Mark Rigby, ‘King parrots are dying of a wasting disease that may be spreading through birdbaths’, ABC Far North, 17 November 2021.

Adapting to Predators

Native animals are easy prey for cats and foxes because they haven’t evolved with them and adapted their behaviour to survive in their presence.

To date efforts to protect native wildlife have focussed on trapping, shooting and poisoning cats and foxes and fencing off exclusion zones for native animals, with varying degrees of success. However researchers in South Australia are taking a different approach.

They are aiming to improve the response of naive prey animals so that they can eventually "claw back" some of their previous range and "co-exist with cats and foxes in more places in the wild”.

The researchers "placed bilbies and burrowing bettongs into a fenced paddock and added low numbers of feral cats.” The aim was to "accelerate natural selection and direct learning through real predator encounters”.

Six years later, these bilbies were warier and better at hiding from cats than those that had not been exposed to cats. Also the bilbies in the experiment developed longer hind feet and faster reaction times, indicating that some natural selection was taking place. This does not happen in the wild because the numbers of predators are too high and the native animals are wiped out before they can adapt.

Ref: Katherine Moseby, So you want to cat-proof a bettong: how living with predators could help native species survive, The Conversation, 3 January 2021.