Water for our Wildlife

The current major drought, which began in 2017, is starting to be felt closer to home with water restrictions recently being put in place. Our bushland wildlife however has been on water restrictions for quite a bit longer.

Local wildlife carer, Catherine Wroe, is seeing lots of dehydrated birds coming into care as they are not getting enough moisture from the food available. If you’ve been for a walk in our bushland recently it’s obvious that there is very little moisture about, leaves and limbs are being shed, mature trees turning up their toes, the soil is dry and drifting without moisture to keep it together.

Catherine has offered up some tips on how to care for our local wildlife.

• Put out water in shallow dishes, both up high and down low and in the shade if possible. If you don’t have shallow dishes include a stick or two so smaller animals can get out if they slip in.
• Keep your cats and dogs inside, especially at night. This lets the wildlife get a drink relatively risk free.

Other tips from https://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/summer-wildlife.php include;

• Covering your pool avoids animals drowning and also reduces evaporation, saving you money
• Keeping an emergency care kit on hand; water, blanket , box and wildlife carer number...Catherine Wroe 0412 093 030

Signs of heat-stressed animals include;

• Nocturnal animals like possums out during the day
• Birds or other animals showing loss of balance, collapse, confusion or panting
• Tree dwelling animals on the ground