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Canberra Today 20°/24° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Volunteers brace to offer holiday wildlife help

Merindah the injured wombat… “She’s just made this remarkable recovery and she’s turned into a really lovely, sweet-natured little girl,” says Lindy. Photo: Lily Pass

“WHAT we want for the holidays is no more animals to come into care, please,” is Lindy Butcher’s wish as president of ACT Wildlife.

“We would love it if no animals got hit by cars and no animals got taken by dogs and cats.”

ACT Wildlife’s 120 volunteers will be staffing the wildlife hotline and providing support during the holiday period. Lindy says this includes transport to and from vets, rescuing animals, collecting food and moving animals between carers.

“We have probably 1500 animals in care over the year, and I think there’s maybe 200 in care right now across Canberra,” she says.

Of the 120 volunteers, 70 are active carers of possums, wombats, flying foxes, lizards, turtles, wallabies, echidnas, frogs and birds.

“We would expect with people going travelling over [the holidays] we’ll see more animals hit by cars. People’s pets running out will take an animal or frighten it, and people might find injured animals if they’re out and about doing family things over the holidays.”

Lindy says before calling about an animal, look on the ACT Wildlife website for hints.

She says members of the public need to pick up as much of the load as they possibly can.

“If there’s a lizard or echidna in your backyard then keep the dogs and cats inside and let it pass through.

“The animals are likely on their way back to their nest, burrow or young and if you move them yourself, they might lose their way.”

Lindy says her mother, Marion Townsend, is a wildlife carer herself and that’s where Lindy got her passion from.

They grew up in the NT in an indigenous community and followed a traditional lifestyle.

“The men would go hunting and they would often bring back a wallaby, and it would have a baby joey with it. My mum would get the joey and we would raise it and put it back in the bush again.”

ACT Wildlife president Lindy Butcher (right) with her mother Marion Townsend… “We would expect with people going travelling over [the holidays] we’ll see more animals hit by cars.” Photo: Lily Pass
Lindy moved to Canberra 25 years ago, and has worked with ACT Wildlife and its previous iterations since then, and eight years ago her mum moved in.

“Mum can’t do the little fiddly stuff anymore, but she’s good for keeping the animals warm and supervising.”

Together they’ve cared for a range of animals, including birds, wallabies, possums, and wombats which are Lindy’s favourite, “I just love them”.

Currently, Lindy is caring for a 14-month-old wombat named Merindah, which is a Gadigal word meaning beautiful, and a baby crimson rosella named Heckle.

Merindah came into her care three months ago as an orphan with mange. It had been attacked by bigger wombats because it was vulnerable and had “horrendous, infected” wounds from the front of its nose to the end of its rump.

“She’s just made this remarkable recovery and she’s turned into a really lovely, sweet-natured little girl,” says Lindy.

“Thanks to covid, all the volunteers will probably be home for most of the holidays, but there will be people like me who are popping up to Wollongong for the day with my children,” says Lindy.

A lot of the time, if the animals are little, she takes them with her.

“We carry little animals with us. I’ve checked into hotels in Sydney with a baby wombat in my carry bag and I’ve been to restaurants with the wombat in my bag with a heat pad because it needed a bottle while I was out.”

“Obviously you can’t take everything. When I go away for a couple of days the little bird will go to another carer and Merindah can manage without me, the neighbours will feed her.”

She says the volunteers work really hard to support each other to ensure people do get breaks, because it’s not like other forms of volunteering.

“It’s not like you go, you do your shift and then you come home. This is 24 hours around the clock for as long as the animal needs you.”

actwildlife.net

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