Perth, WA Australia
January
4th 2016
Monday was my first day working at
Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. I arrived at 8am for the morning shift
(there are three shifts per day; morning 8-12:30, afternoon 12-4:30, evening
4-8:30). I finally met Tasha Hennings, who is the hospital manager at Kanyana and
has been a big help in co-ordinating this experience for me. She introduced me
to the hospital staff, where I spent the morning learning on my feet about how
to clean, feed, and care for the various animals at Kanyana. Kanyana is a busy
wildlife centre that sees thousands of animals. There is a hospital section
(where I was working) where animals needing intensive care such as frequent
feeding, medical treatment, or supplemental heat are kept. Once animals are
starting to recover they are moved on a part time and then full time basis to
the breezeway area where there are cages and aviaries with open air exposure.
When birds are almost ready for release they can move to the pre-release
aviary. There’s also an isolation unit for animals with contagious diseases,
and a quarantine area for new arrivals (which currently has a northern quoll in
it). Then there are the resident animals who live here permanently as
educational ambassadors (more on them later!). And lastly there is a small
aviary housing rainbow lorikeets. Rainbow lorikeets are not native to Western Australia,
and are very susceptible to the horrible psittacine beak and feather disease.
Kanyana humanely euthanizes the adult birds because it’s not fair to force a
feral bird into a cage if you can’t release it, but if babies are free of PBFD
they are raised here and sold as pets, which is a source of income for the
centre. Many of the centre’s animals are birds, with the most common being
magpies, doves, and galahs. There are also parrots, pigeons, honeyeaters, tree
martins, and currently and adorable pair of baby kookaburras. In terms of
reptiles by far the most common is bobtails, but we’ve also had a bearded
dragon come in.
I’ve been very impressed with Kanyana so far.
Their staff are a well oiled machine that work well together to keep everything
running smoothly and the animals well cared for. Animals are observed and fed
frequently, and there is attention to detail. It’s obvious how much the
community supports Kanyana, based on how many people come in with injured
animals and how many call to check in on animals they have dropped off. The
community outreach is also incredible, with Kanyana doing educational talks,
running a variety of tours, hosting special kids' events, and organizing successful
fundraisers. They are doing amazing work and they couldn’t do it without their
awesome volunteers and the supportive community.
Anyways, Monday afternoon I met the afternoon
supervisor Rachel, who got me to help Dot with treatments (there is a dedicated
person on treatments each day) and then gave me and Leah (a 2nd year
vet student from Australia) a tour of the facility.
After work Steve took me into town to go
grocery shopping. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Steve and his wife Sue
live at Kanyana permanently, and are the caretakers of the facility. They are
the only other people other than me on the property overnight. They are
absolutely wonderful people, and have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome
and offer their assistance. After grocery shopping they invited me over to meet
the two young joeys (Noah and Lex) that Sue is caring for in her home. Sue
helps raise orphan joeys from around Western Australia, who are then sent to
release sites when they are old enough. Of course I didn’t say no when she
asked if I wanted to hold Noah and have a picture with him. I’ve had moments
where I’ve doubted my ability to pursue this career I’ve chosen, but holding
Noah and looking into his soft deep brown eyes solidified why I do what I do,
and that I love working with animals more than anything else in the world.
There is nothing I would rather do with my life than work to care for animals.
I eventually returned home to my little house
(which I am quickly falling in love with), and was lucky to spot some wild
kangaroos hopping by on my way to do laundry!
January
5th 2016
Tuesday my first shift was the
afternoon shift, where I worked in the hospital with Esther doing third day
assessments of animals. When animals come into Kanyana the initial treatment
plan includes medications and oral fluids for at least 3 days. On the third day
the animals are assessed again to see if they have improved, are eating well,
and gaining weight. It’s important with wildlife to make close observations, as
their condition can change rapidly in captivity due to stress.
Tuesday night was my first evening
shift at Kanyana. I was asked to help feed the resident animals, which I
happily agreed to! First up was Widgee the emu. In general I find emus to be
pretty terrifying birds, but Widgee is pretty cute. Then it was on to Munch the
grey kangaroo who let me scratch her tummy, and Molly and Dexter the wallabies
who live with a couple quendas. I loved meeting Elle and Aruba the echidnas,
because they are just such cool animals. We then we fed some nocturnal species;
Barry the Barrow Island Possum, Boodie the burrowing bettong, and a couple of
woylies. Kanyana also has a breeding program to support the endangered bilby
(basically like cute large mice that burrow underground), so we fed all 18 of
them (16 adults and two cute babies!!) There’s a couple of breeding pairs who
like to snuggle together, which is just adorable. I think my favourite animals
that we visited were Henry and Raffi the red-tailed black cockatoos. Raffi took
a bit of a liking to me and sat on my arm and snuggled into me, which just
melted my heart. You can learn more about Kanyana’s resident animals here: http://www.kanyanawildlife.org.au/resident-animals/
(page seems a wee bit out of date). You can also read more about the work that
they do! I spent the rest of the evening helping Jenni the treatment person. We
got to see the bilbies again to give two of them their milk supplement, and
went up to check on the pygmy possum. Alicia was also nice enough to drop me
off at the Ranger’s Hut so I didn’t have to walk in the dark!
January
6th 2016
Wednesday I again worked the morning
shift. I was working with Lindy, who was great at teaching me and showing me
around. She has a strong background in parasitology and does a lot of work for
Kanyana identifying different parasites. She’s actually helped discover a
number of new species, one coccidia being named after Kanyana! It was pretty
cool even though parasitology is not really my thing, and I was super touched
that Lindy took the time to show me her lab over in quarantine and dig up some
cool specimens and journal articles for me.
I had a break in the middle of the
day and then it was back to the night shift. I again helped feed the residents,
getting to spend more time with my favourites the echidnas and the cockatoos.
After that I helped Karen with treatments and admissions. It was my first
exposure to euthanasia at Kanyana, as we sadly had to put down a galah that had
been hit by a car. It’s always hard ending an animal’s life, but it’s a huge part
of wildlife medicine, and I take comfort knowing that I gave an animal a
peaceful death rather than the slow or terrifying one they might experience in
nature. Karen was really great with letting me do hands on stuff with all the
admissions, from assessment to treatment to euthanasia.
January
7th 2016
Thursday afternoon was more of the
same helping out in the hospital. Sometimes I’m more focused on treatments,
other times I’m helping clean and feed. All jobs in a wildlife hospital are
important, and I’m happy to help Kanyana in any way I can. They’ve been really
great at letting me do “vet things”, but I don’t mind doing some of the more
mundane things like feeding. It’s rewarding work regardless of whether I’m
treating an animal or giving it a much needed meal.
Thursday night I came back for my 3rd
night shift. This time I didn’t help feed the residents, but instead focused on
being in the hospital and doing treatments. Leanne the shift supervisor was
really awesome and treated me like a real veterinarian. I was even asked to
give a second opinion on a bird that came in! It was a little galah that was
showing weakness and ataxia. He seemed pretty friendly so I thought maybe he
was somebody’s pet who had not been fed an appropriate diet and was suffering
from metabolic bone disease. Turned out later things were more consistent with
PBFD. He ended up being euthanized, and they discovered an enlarged
proventriculus. Anyways it was great to have more of a sense of responsibility
and independence, even if it’s hard to accept that people are going to start
looking to ME for answers! Natasha the treatment person was really nice and
even gave me her contact info in case I needed help getting around Perth!
January
8th 2016
Friday morning we knew would be
short staffed, so Tasha had me and Leah sort of run the hospital; we handled
most of the treatments, feeding, cleaning, and weighing. Again, it felt really
good to have that kind of responsibility. You make a few mistakes along the
way, but you learn confidence in your abilities overall and it gives you a
sense of pride. We helped Tasha with some of the admissions too, including a
bobtail with the flu and a galah with a mysterious injury on its keel. Turned out
later after it was euthanized it had been hit with a pellet gun shot! Tasha
seemed impressed that Leah and I picked up on that, which made me feel good. In
the afternoon we helped get the tube feedings done in isolation before
finishing our shift. I also got to help give the wallabies their medication
(well really only Molly gets medication – eye drops – but Dexter of course has
to have some of the milk we use to bribe her into holding still. She needs her
buddy to have some too!). Gave me a chance to cuddle them a bit and take some
photos.
January
9th 2016
Saturday was my first day off and my
first chance to explore! I decided to just head into Perth and explore the
city. Steve was true to his word and dropped me off at the train station. I
bought an all day pass because it was cheaper than multiple rides throughout
the day. After enjoying the free downtown wifi with breakfast (mmmm breakfast
panini) and shopping around a bit I headed up to Kings Park, which is bigger
than Central Park to put that in perspective. It was an absolutely glorious day
(I had to buy a tank top since my t-shirt was way too hot), and since Kings Park
is on a hill I got some incredible views of the city and Swan River. It was
really hot out, just as it had been all week (it’s been consistently around 35
degrees during the day). I made sure to chug a bottle of water. I went on a
walk through the park looking for Gija Jumulu, the 750 year old giant boab
tree. It was harder to find than I expected, but that gave me a chance to see a
lot of the park, including a couple there for their wedding photos. It was
pretty cool seeing such an ancient tree up close.
After Kings Park I decided to head
to Hillarys Harbour to check out AQWA, the Aquarium of Western Australia. I’d
never really been to an aquarium before, and man this one did not disappoint.
So many amazing and beautiful fish to look at!! My favourite was the under
water walk through with sharks, stingrays, and a giant turtle overhead, where I
honestly could have spent hours. The clown fish, sea horses, dangerous fish,
and petting pool all came close though. I’ve decided that stingrays are one of
the most beautiful marine creatures. Watching a giant one gracefully float
above your head is an experience I can’t quite put into words. After getting my
fill of the aquarium (well, actually it was closing time) I enjoyed a cheap and
delicious surf and turf dinner then headed back to the train station.
January
10th 2016
My original plan for this day was to
head to Rottnest Island, but the ferry times were trickier than I thought to
organize, and the day ended up looking cool and overcast at the start so I
decided to go on one of the wine tours I’d wanted to do. I called the company
and booked the last spot! It’s probably a bit weird going on a wine tour on
your own, but god damn it I love wine. The tour left Perth around lunch so I
just kind of wandered around a bit near the train station when I got there,
buying a hoodie I’d had my eye on (it was a little chilly!) I met two lovely
older ladies waiting for the tour bus, who were really nice to me and seemed
like a fun pair of sister-in-laws. Katie lives in Perth but Catrina was
visiting from Scotland. Our first stop was Houghton Winery, which was pretty
good though maybe a bit stuffy. Next up was Lancaster Wines, which I really
liked – both for the wines and the laid back atmosphere. They also had the most
amazing cheeses!! My favourite was the one with chive in it, but the chilli
pepper, olive, and gooey one were good too. This was also where I bonded with
Rose (who lives in Belfast), the only other solo person on the tour. We made a
pact to take pictures of each other, because what are friends for. Next stop
was across the road to the Margaret River Chocolate Company, where we enjoyed
delicious free truffles and chocolate samples, as well as some tasty ice cream.
And of course we did the chocolate liqueur (and more wine) tasting, duh. Plenty
of delicious condiments to sample too. After chocolate it was time for more
wine, this time at Sandalford Winery. This was the most beautiful winery, and
the wine was plentiful too (unlimited glass refilling!!) Really liked this
place. Maybe the cute server helped too. They even offered us a discount, so of
course I bought another bottle (already bought one at Lancaster with some
cheese). Our last stop of the day was Ironbark Brewery, where we enjoyed some
amazing live music, good beer, and tasty potato wedges and pizza. It was a
great end to a great day (the only slight downside being the group of noisy
girls with us). I headed back home with my stomach full, my head buzzing, and a smile on my lips.
Cheers my
friends, I will have more adventures to share next time!
Jealous - I wish I was still traveling with you.
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