Wildlife Victoria Panel Discussion

Today I attended my first wildlife panel discussion. When we arrived we saw Andrew from wildlife rescuers. It was good to see him. Zaylee from Wildlife Victoria "interviewed" Andrew and Julie about their wildlife experiences. They spoke about lots of things to do with wildlife rescuing. Their stories were amazing.
Zaylee from Wildlife Victoria was excited to hear about what I do. She was proud of me. Mum got some stickers from Wildlife Victoria that I can hand out to the kinder kids I am talking to on Tuesday. They have Wildlife Victoria's phone number on them. They will be great to put on the car so that if you hit an animal or see an animal on the side of the road- you know who to call! I will ask all the kids to get their parents to put them on their cars.

Some of the things I learnt were...

• If you touch a bat you get a disease which can kill you. DON'T Touch them!
  
• If you walk up to a group of female kangaroos and a male is around then he will attack you but mummy kangaroos can be even more aggressive
• If you hit a kangaroo it may just bonce off and bounce away. You still need to call wildlife because it will be in shock and go and sit some where and die or if there is food and water there it will live for a week and just slowly die.
  
• DO NOT feed wildlife-
  especially feeding ducks bread. They may like bread but it is NOT good for them OR their environment. And don't leave seed out for wild birds. There is a killer disease out there and when birds spit the seeds out, other birds pick it up and share the disease.
• If you have fruit trees- ask at Bunnings for wildlife friendly nets. If you have to put up nets make sure that you build a frame for the nets and don't just put them up loose. The bats get trapped in them very easily!

They talked about road signs and driving safely around area's you know there are wildlife. Mum and i have talked about this many times! We have koala and wombat road signs on mum's car. We talked about a road in our suburb that has many kangaroos killed on it. Mum asked about how to get road signs put up. They are done by your local council. You need to contact them- they will ask for statists of deaths. You can contact Wildlife Victoria and they will give them to you for your area if you want. Mum and I are going to email our council and try and get Kangaroo wildlife signs put up on a local BUSY road where we see lots of kangaroos near by and often dead ones on the side of the road. Once we know statistics (coming from Wildlife Vic) mum will write a letter to council. We will post this letter and ask everyone who drives this road to please send the letter to council too. Hopefully we can get warning signs up to save the kangaroos in the paddocks around our home.
At the end of the session they asked- what is the most important thing you want people to walk away with today? They said "ALWAYS call Wildlife Victoria if you see an animal on the side of the road or somewhere. Even though the animal may look like its ok- they DO NOT MIND being called out to a healthy animal. Most animals that are sitting near the edge of the road and ALL animals that have been hit by a car- NEED HELP! They put up a very good front to not let other animals think that they are vulnerable so always best to call.

Do you want a Wildlife Phone number reminder sticker for your car?

Contact us through my page. Send your name and address and we will post one out to you FREE of charge.

Stickers I got to hand out to kids when I do my conservation talks.

Wildlife Victoria- SAVE THEIR NUMBER IN YOUR PHONE!
Wildlife Rescuers-  Northern Suburbs Rescue Group
Wildlife Rescuers Volunteers that were on the panel
JABS Joey & Bat Sanctuary- Julie
Second Chance Wildlife- Andrew who we have met before