Transcription Audio

Hello and welcome. Picture this: dusk on a country road. Your headlights catch a shape. A wallaby. Motionless. Then—there it is—a joey’s head flickers from the pouch. Your heart surges. You want to run straight in. But here’s the truth: pause first. Those first sixty seconds decide what happens next—for the animal and for you. Conditions are tougher than ever: heatwaves, fires, urban sprawl. More displaced wildlife, more roadside injuries. The best responders are laser-focused on one thing: control the scene, get precise information, and call early. The catch isn’t the job. The job is risk management and species-specific decisions. Pros warn about three blind spots: 1) Location accuracy. If rescuers can’t find you, they can’t help. Aim for a “rescue triangle”: a GPS pin plus two clear landmarks. Think “dropped pin, 74 km marker, eastbound shoulder 200 metres north of the bridge.” Pinpoint beats guesswork. 2) Species risk. Some animals require trained, vaccinated responders: bats, adult macropods (kangaroos, wallabies), raptors, snakes, large goannas, wombats. Australian bat lyssavirus is rare but real—only vaccinated bat handlers should touch bats. Even “gentle” species can injure you or themselves when stressed. 3) Stress and heat. Wild animals crash fast when mishandled. Feeding or giving water can cause aspiration. Rough capture can trigger capture myopathy—a deadly stress response. In summer, heat stress spirals in minutes. Your job isn’t to treat; it’s to reduce stress and temperature extremes. So what actually works? Think PAC: Pause, Assess, Communicate. Pause and secure the scene. Park safely with hazards on. If you’ve got a hi-vis vest, wear it. Position your car to create a buffer without creating another hazard. Scan for traffic, powerlines, water, dogs, people. Your safety comes first. Assess from a distance. Keep quiet. From a few metres, note species and size, obvious injuries, breathing, bleeding, entanglement, and nearby hazards. Head tilt or circling can mean neurological issues; rapid, shallow breathing suggests shock; wings held out can indicate heat stress. Two minutes of observation shapes everything you do next. Pin the location. Drop a GPS pin. Add two landmarks—kilometre marker, bridge name, “northbound shoulder,” “opposite the old silo.” If safe, take a quick photo of the scene. Accurate location data shaves vital minutes and gets the right specialist moving. Communicate—call early. Save your state wildlife hotline now: WIRES in NSW, Wildlife Victoria, and equivalent groups across Australia. When you call, speak calmly and give: - Exact GPS pin + two landmarks - Species and size (if known) - What you’re seeing: breathing, bleeding, entanglement, movement - Hazards: traffic, dogs, powerlines, water - If you can safely stay and maintain visual contact - Your callback number and whether you can share live location Early calls let dispatchers send the right person—a vaccinated bat rescuer, a macropod specialist with sedation capability. You’re not just reporting; you’re triaging. While you wait, manage the space. Keep people and pets back. Don’t chase. If the animal is immobile near traffic, create a visible buffer—hazards on, a reflector or bright jumper on the roadside if it’s safe. Maintain visual contact from a distance. Keep things quiet. When do you move an animal? Only if there’s immediate danger and only if it’s safe and species-appropriate—and ideally with dispatcher guidance. For small birds, small possums, or lizards, gently drape a towel to reduce stress, then place into a ventilated box lined with a towel. Keep it dark and quiet. Do not handle bats, adult kangaroos or wallabies, raptors, snakes, large goannas, or wombats. For those, keep a visual, manage traffic if safe, and wait for the pros. Big don’ts: - Don’t feed or give water. - Don’t cuddle or talk loudly—quiet and dark are medicine. - Don’t try to rehabilitate at home; it’s illegal without a permit and harms outcomes. - Don’t cut free entanglements without advice; animals can flee with embedded hooks or wire and die out of sight. Special scenarios: Pouch checks. If an adult macropod is clearly deceased and it’s safe, check the pouch. Wear gloves if you have them. Gently open, look and listen. If a joey is unattached and mobile, place it in a soft cloth bag or towel, keep warm and quiet, and call for guidance. If the joey is attached to the teat, do not pull. Call the hotline; they’ll talk you through next steps. Keep the area quiet and lightly cover to reduce stress if safe. Heat events. Flying-foxes may be on the ground or panting in trees, wings spread. Do not handle bats. Keep kids and dogs away. Call a vaccinated rescuer. If advised, create shade and gently cool the air around—not spraying into mouths, not drenching—just reduce ambient heat until help arrives. For heat-stressed small birds or mammals you’re asked to transport, keep them shaded and cool in a ventilated box—no direct air-con blast. Entanglements. Fruit netting and barbed wire are common traps. If safe, covering the head with a towel can reduce panic. Don’t cut unless instructed. Support the body, keep tension off the trapped limb, keep the area quiet, and wait for advice. The wrong snip can cause catastrophic injury or allow escape with material still attached. Transport basics. If you’re asked to transport, use a sturdy, ventilated box with a towel on the base. Avoid wire cages; animals injure themselves on wire. For birds, a box tall enough to stand without flapping is ideal. Secure the lid, keep it dark, place it on the floor behind the seat so it won’t slide. Keep the car quiet and temperature stable—not hot, not chilly. No food or water. Drive straight to the vet or carer the dispatcher gives you. Wildlife vets won’t charge you for presenting an injured native animal. Handover. Tell the vet or carer: time and exact location found, how you found the animal, behaviour changes, fluids or bleeding, any contact with cats or dogs. That timeline speeds decisions. Afterwards, wash hands and check yourself for scratches or bites. If any break in your skin contacted a bat or unknown fluids, seek medical advice immediately and explain exactly what happened. A small car kit helps: hi-vis vest, a couple of old towels, thick gloves, a collapsible ventilated box or carrier, headlamp, reflective triangle, marker tape or bright cloth, hand sanitiser, and a list of hotline numbers for your state and usual routes. A modest kit, a massive difference. Back to our roadside wallaby. You pause. Hazards on. You create a safe buffer. You observe: adult female, no movement, joey visible, traffic nearby. You drop a pin, note your two landmarks, and call. You give the rescue triangle: GPS, the 74 km marker, “eastbound shoulder, two hundred metres north of the bridge.” You say you can stay on scene. Dispatch sends a macropod specialist and guides you through a safe pouch check. You don’t pull. You keep it quiet. You reduce stress. You do the simple things right, and those simple things save lives. Here’s your quick mental checklist: - Pause. Breathe. Secure the scene. - Assess from a distance: species, injuries, hazards. - Pin the location: GPS plus two landmarks—your rescue triangle. - Call early. Give clear, calm information and take advice. - Manage stress: quiet, dark, minimal handling. No food or water. - Know your do-not-handle list: bats, adult macropods, raptors, snakes, large goannas, wombats. - Move only if it’s safe and advised. - Transport only in a dark, ventilated box, straight to a vet or carer. Most of us will only have a few moments where this matters. But in those moments, it matters a lot. Save those hotline numbers, tuck a small kit in your boot, and remember PAC: Pause, Assess, Communicate. Take control of the scene, get the location right, and call early. The experts will take it from there.