Renting Out Koalas

The Australian Reptile Park on the NSW Central Coast has been criticised for allegedly offering to rent koalas to hosts at events, hotels and even homes. Earlier this year it had an advertisement on its website entitled “Koalas to Your Room” with a price of $2000 an hour and the text:

“Our friendly keepers will come to you with a koala or other native species to let you enjoy the animal in the peace and comfort of your hotel room or home,”

The Reptile Park has since promised that it will no longer be providing that service. The NSW government is considering making the practice illegal.

Ref: AAP, ‘Horrendous’: NSW animal parks could be banned from renting out koalas, The Guardian, 1 March 2022.

Avian Pox Virus

Kevin Hurt, a Bingie resident, reported that a fledgling magpie on his property had a deformed foot. Rachel McInnes diagnosed it as Avian Pox Virus and sent me information about how Kevin could treat it.

Avian pox virus is an infection transmitted by insect bites, from mosquitoes for example. It affects magpies, currawongs, pigeons, raptors and possibly other bird species. Warty skin nodules appear on unfeathered skin. In severe cases the infection can spread to the bird's organs and its immune system can be compromised.

Various carers have found that the condition, if it is on the feet, can be treated by getting the bird to walk back and forth through a solution of iodine (Betadine) and water each day for at least a week. Birds can be encouraged to do this by tempting them with food (eg meat mixed with Insectivore or Insectapro). Eventually, after a number of weeks, the lesions will fall off.

This treatment can be undertaken by members of the public without the need to capture the bird and stress it out. In this case Kevin devised a method of treating the magpie by having a tray containing the diluted Betadine solution with a board on each side of the tray. One end of the tray was placed against a brick step and a rock island was positioned in the tray with the food morsels on it. The magpie had to wade through the Betadine solution to eat the food. (see photo).

Government Response to Inquiry

The NSW government has only fully accepted only 2 out of 23 recommendations of the inquiry into kangaroo population levels and culling practices.

The three day parliamentary inquiry, which received over 400 submissions was a response to concerns about the scale and regulation of kangaroo culling.

The government agreed to publish explanations of its kangaroo planning and methodology and include Indigenous perspectives but did not support other recommendations, including an auditor general review of its management plan, video monitoring of kangaroo populations, and the collection of data about the fate of orphaned joeys after culling.

"George Wilson, a leading researcher and ANU science professor said both the inquiry, and government kangaroo policy generally, left many areas 'completely under-addressed' and called for an end to 'short-termism'."

Ref: Tamsin Rose, NSW government criticised for ‘dismissive’ response to inquiry into kangaroo population, The Guardian, 22 April 2022.

Planting Trees is for the Birds

Revegetating cleared farmland increases the number of woodland birds, according to new research. This is important as many species of woodland birds, such as the southern whiteface, brown treecreeper and white-browed babbler, are in decline in southern Australia because of the clearing of native wooded vegetation in rural areas.

"We surveyed and compared bird communities in farm landscapes with differing amounts of tree cover. We found when the amount of revegetation in open farmland increased, the number of woodland bird species did, too. For example, an increase in revegetation from 1% to 10% of the landscape doubled the number of woodland bird species.”

Only some woodland bird species thrive in the revegetated areas as others require older trees. For this reason it is best to revegetate around older remnant patches of vegetation.

Ref: Andrew Bennett et. al., New research shows planting trees and shrubs brings woodland birds back to farms, from superb fairy wrens to spotted pardalotes, The Conversation, 6 April 2022.

Most Wild Dogs Killed are Dingos

In April, the federal minister for environment and the minister for agriculture announced an extra $800,000 to extend the national feral animal coordinators program, including the National Wild Dog Management Coordinator project.

The killing of wild dogs is government policy driven by the livestock industry. Wild dogs are defined by the government as “all wild-living dogs, which include: dingoes, feral dogs and their hybrids”.

However most wild dogs killed by farmers are dingos. "Tests of 5,039 wild dog DNA samples from across Australia found 64% were pure dingos and a further 20% were more than 75% dingo.”

However, scientific evidence indicates that protecting dingos is better for the environment and better for the farmers as dingos reduce the number of feral goats and kangaroos competing with livestock for vegetation. Also if the alpha dingos are killed, the young dingos are more likely to harm livestock.

Ref: Natasha May, Most wild dogs killed across rural Australia are pure dingoes, DNA research says, The Guardian, 6 April 2022.

Flying foxes in Eurobodalla

Grey-headed flying-fox population numbers in the Eurobodalla were monitored during April resulting in the following estimates:

• Water Gardens: 5,600
• Catalina North/Golf course: 10,500
• Moruya Heads: 550
• Tuross Head: 86
• Narooma: 2200

There were none at Moruya town, Dalmeny and Broulee.

There were no signs of visible distress at any of the flying-fox camps and there was low level mating at the Water Gardens and Catalina camps. The numbers are even higher than in April 2019, when the population shire-wide peaked at 14,000.

Ref: Tom Gear, ‘Grey-headed flying-fox monitoring report: 7 Apr-21 Apr 2022, Eurobodalla Shire Council, 2022.

What I learned from…

by Liz Spiller

What I have learned from caring for birds is:

1. A healthy respect for the strength and accuracy of a lorikeet’s beak.
   
2. It’s amazing how quickly a caged bird can flit between your neck and shoulder and escape.
   
3. I could catch them if they couldn’t fly.
   
4. I can’t fly.
   

The lesson that has struck me most is that some wildlife are simply more resilient than others.

One of the first birds I cared for was a rainbow lorikeet. I picked him up from the vet 2 days after Christmas 2019. The vet asked me if I wanted to bother as he had been attacked by a cat, was in shock, and had a very nasty, deep, infected wound on his chest. I thought I’d give him a go anyway, after all it was Christmas and the state was on fire.

He had oral antibiotics twice a day for 10 days and I cleaned his wound and applied Solosite (great stuff) twice a day for 10 days as well. And he simply would not give up! Every morning for the first week I expected to find him toes up in the bottom of his carrier but no, he was a battler. He evacuated to Surf Beach with us on New Year’s Eve 2019 and did not complain once.

I released him on the 15th January 2020. He was flying pretty well. Landing was a bit ordinary but he looked the real deal. He hung around for a couple of days and then disappeared.

I learnt that if they don’t give up, neither will I!

Photo: Satin bower bird with wound on side of beak in final healing stage by Liz Spiller.