

Posted February 28, 2014 17:28:00

Wildlife rescue volunteers are continuing to euthanise and treat hundreds of injured native animals that were burnt in the Victorian fires. Many are also now suffering from thirst and starvation.

Source: The World Today | Duration: 6min 9sec

Topics: bushfire, conservation, vic


PETER LLOYD: Communities in central Victoria affected by the summer's grass and bushfires are still dealing with consequences

Tens of thousands of head of livestock have been euthanised, and there are now hundreds of injured, starving and thirsty wildlife emerging in these burnt-out areas, and wildlife shelters are starting to struggle to accommodate sick animals.

A dedicated group of wildlife volunteers has been scouring the area, putting down those too badly injured to survive.

Our reporter Rachel Carbonell accompanies one of those wildlife rescuers for a day to see the quiet work they're doing behind the scenes to ease the suffering of burnt animals.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Manfred Zabinskas runs a wildlife rescue business, but in times like this after major fires, he devotes dozens of hours of his time to voluntarily euthanising and, where possible, rescuing injured wildlife.

The World Today spent an afternoon with him in the Wallan area, a region north of Melbourne which was badly burnt by the fires.

MANFRED ZABINSKAS: We try to get out as quickly as possible when it's safe to do so and look for injured animals. So it's probably the first approach is really to look for the ones that have been very badly affected, that have got serious burns, and need to be euthanised for humane reasons.

That's our main focus in the early days and then as time goes on we start focusing on animals that are showing signs of more minor injuries and things that need a bit of help, go into care so they can have antibiotics, treatment to their burns and spend a bit of time in a wildlife shelter so that we can save them.

RACHEL CARBONELL: If you're able to sort of pull out something injured from here, where are you most likely to take it?

MANFRED ZABINSKAS: Well, the preference is always to go to the nearest shelter, but there are a number of other factors as well. It will depend largely on the animal we're dealing with. Basically, we get them to the nearest person who's able and willing to take them. They are filling up quickly.

We've still got a few homes left, but we wouldn't want to be capturing too many more animals before we start struggling to find places for them, and we'll need to then search further out and seek the assistance of shelters from not within this district that can offer some help and temporarily care for some animals until they're well enough to come back.

RACHEL CARBONELL: So we've arrived at one of the addresses that you're hoping to check out today. It's pretty surrounded by burnt ground, isn't it?

MANFRED ZABINSKAS: It is, yes. It's very depressing. So that's the other issue about properties like this is that we're not only dealing with injured wildlife but of course we've also, you know... we're seeing a lot of destruction and people that have been impacted heavily.

We meet a lot of people that have lost their homes, lost properties, lost buildings and fencing and livestock and pets and... look, it's very confronting. It's not a nice place to be. It's very depressing and distressing and yeah, I guess we just have to focus on what needs to be done and try to put all that aside.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Homeowner Graham Thomson and his wife have called the wildlife rescue crew out to check out some slow-looking kangaroos

GRAHAM THOMSON: I was just concerned about these three so I gave them the ring and said, you know, can you come out and just check them out?

RACHEL CARBONELL: It looks like it was a pretty close call for you guys.

GRAHAM THOMSON: We were very lucky. Missed the house but didn't miss the sheds.

RACHEL CARBONELL: And some of your neighbours not so lucky?

GRAHAM THOMSON: Not so lucky. Five houses in the road out of 16 have gone.

RACHEL CARBONELL: It's impressive that in amongst all of this recovery, people are worrying about wildlife.

GRAHAM THOMSON: They're part of the landscape and I mean this is why we live out here. What's missing is the bird life at the moment.

RACHEL CARBONELL: It's a bit sad isn't it?


RACHEL CARBONELL: A couple of volunteers are here to help. They communicate with Mr Zabinskas using walkie-talkies and quietly drive the kangaroos towards him so he can try and shoot the worst injured of them with a tranquilliser dart.

(Sound of tranquilliser dart gun)

He manages to land a shot on a male joey.

MANFRED ZABINSKAS: The bugger, the adrenalin kicks in and that's it.

RACHEL CARBONELL: It looked like he was slowing down here.

MANFRED ZABINSKAS: No, he'll go down. He won't be far from laying down.

RACHEL CARBONELL: The joey does collapse and Mr Zabinskas and the volunteers check out it's injuries before wrapping it in a blanket and transporting it to a wildlife shelter.

MANFRED ZABINSKAS: It's all his feet all peeled off.

RACHEL CARBONELL: What do you think his chances are?

MANFRED ZABINSKAS: Um, pretty good the way he was moving. Now that we've got him in care he's the sort of kangaroo that we're really focusing on. He'd be one of the ones that would die if we didn't capture him, and he's got a really good chance of survival with care in a wildlife shelter.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Chris Litchfield and her partner run a wildlife shelter in central Victoria and have been taking in some of the injured animals.

CHRIS LITCHFIELD: We're coming in here. This is where I've got the little, the three little joeys from the Riddles Creek fire.

RACHEL CARBONELL: So what sorts of injuries are they coming in with?

CHRIS LITCHFIELD: Well, obviously burns. These little joeys, only one of them has burns to the feet. He was found hopping through the actual ashes. This little joey here was actually in the pouch of an adult female who's here as well, but in a different room; he's not injured. And this little joey was found orphaned but not burnt.

I'm expecting to get more as the days go by because it's going to go on for weeks and months. Animals can survive quite a long time with burnt feet, but in the end, the infections get them and people are going to see them lying down, and they'll keep coming for a long time.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Other than burns, what other sorts of challenges do wildlife face after fires like these?

CHRIS LITCHFIELD: They get frightened - not just by the fire but by all the activity around the fire, like the helicopters and the cars and the fire trucks. It's all terrifying for them, so then they'll hit fences. I've got... the adult female that came into me actually had a fence injury. She's obviously tried to jump a fence and ripped the top of her leg and pulled her leg out.

And so there will be fence injuries, there'll be car accident victims. I just drove through the Darraweit Guim fire yesterday and I saw, not in the burned area but like two kilometres out of the burned area three or four different car accident animals. So they've come out of the fire and been hit.

But the really awful thing is the starvation, because there's no grass anymore and it's a huge area, so these animals are still in there and they're looking for food.

PETER LLOYD: That's wildlife carer, Chris Litchfield, ending that report by Rachel Carbonell.