Wildlife Shelter
Margo Kroyer-Pedersen Wildlife Shelter
Margo Kroyer-Pedersen was a wildlife artist who dedicated her life and her art to looking after injured and orphaned wildlife. We met her when she moved to Grantville near our farm and she taught us a lot about raising native animals - particularly wombats and possums.
When she died we decided to continue her work and named the shelter after her. Over the years we have accumulated a range of equipment - cages, heat pads, enclosures, sheds as well as the wildlife ambulance.
There more information about the shelter at http://www.freeranger.com.au/page6.html
Finding the time (and the funds) is always hard
As a voluntary organisation, it's often hard responding to calls from members of the public who are trying to do the right thing. They may ring us from hundreds of kilometres away and expect us to drop everything to help a particular animal in trouble. The reality is that we can only look after a few animals in the shelter, no-one provides the funds for us to travel large distances (even if we had the time to go).
Some people are abusive - but that's life. We prefer to concentrate on providing care for the animals rather than worry about someone who has no idea about anything much!!
Some of the animals in the shelter
Over the past ten years we have cared for kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, brushtail and ringtail possums, sugar gliders, feathertail gliders, peregrine falcons, magpies, owls, galahs, cockatoos, blue tongued lizards and even a tortoise.
Sometimes the animals are so badly injured (particularly if it is a result of road trauma) that there is no option but euthanasia. But it is extremely rewarding when after a lot of hard work an animal is able to be released back into the wild.
Pinkies are hard to raise
To remove a live baby from the pouch of its dead mother is the start of a long association (unless you find someone else to take on the careing role). It will take well over a year to raise a wombat from the 'pinkie' (or hairless) stage to the point when it can be released.
At the early stage of its life temperature and the right nutrition are critical - and the feeds of a low-lactose formula have to be maintained every two or three hours, day and night. So it's quite a comittment.
As the youngster grows he or she will become more adventurous, aggressive and stonger - so it can dig its way out of almost everything and will take over your armchair (if you let him or her).
