- Become a wildlife carer
- Do volunteer work at the Wildlife Cottage at the RSPCA
- Join the after-hours telephone roster
- Help with fund-raising activities and publicity
- Donate or make equipment
- Help with wildlife releases
- Collect food for animals in care
- Volunteer with the RSPCA walking dogs, helping with cats, administration tasks, etc
Become a wildlife carer To be a registered wildlife carer in the ACT you must first do basic training in wildlife first aid and care with RSPCA Wildlife. You must also take out membership with the RSPCA to be covered by the wildlife licence and insurance.
Wildlife caring involves a commitment of time and money. While RSPCA Wildlife can supply some items free of charge, such as possum boxes, pouches and milk formula, carers usually have to obtain their own aviaries and cages. Animal carers also collect native branches or other plants on a daily basis and buy their own fruit and vegetables. Orphaned baby birds, kangaroos, wombats and possums need to be fed their own special diet at frequent regular intervals. But they do grow up fast!
If you feel you are not ready to train to be a carer, there are many other ways of helping, as you can see below.
Please note: It is illegal to have a native animal in your possession for more than 48 hours unless you are a registered carer.
If you are interested in becoming a carer, please email Marg Peachey who will add you to the list, and send an application form to you when another beginners course is planned.
Do volunteer work at the Wildlife Cottage at the RSPCA Volunteers can help in various ways, including cleaning cages, feeding birds and animals, answering the telephone and doing clerical work. RSPCA Wildlife maintains a database and a web site, as well as producing a newsletter.
If this sort of volunteer work interests you, please contact Wildlife Officer Marg Peachey to discuss how you can best help, and to put your name down for a regular time.
Join the After-hours Telephone Roster People who would like to help by taking incoming calls on the after-hours mobile telephone would be advised to undertake our training for the phone roster. It is held twice a year.
The person on telephone duty takes incoming calls made to our mobile phone between 5 pm and 9 am from members of the public who have found injured or orphaned wildlife. Advice is given if necessary to allow the caller to take appropriate action. People finding an animal is encouraged to take the animal to a carer in their area of Canberra, or to contact the ranger service to deal with injured kangaroos and injured large reptiles or poisonous snakes.
Help with fundraising activities and publicity RSPCA Wildlife often has a stall at fetes and open days, partly to promote wildlife awareness and partly to raise funds. Members are rostered for one or two hours during the day, which is usually on a weekend. Help is also needed to set up and dismantle the stall.
Donate or make equipment Donations of unwanted items, such as cages, aviaries, pet carriers and towels are always welcome. Carers use towels to pick up native animals and birds and to line pet carriers.
If you have sewing skills, you might consider making inner cotton and/or outer woollen pouches for baby possums, kangaroos and wallabies. Or, if you have carpentry skills, you might consider making possum boxes, aviaries and cages, or hospital boxes / humidicribs.
Before starting on the construction of boxes, etc, please contact Wildlife Officer Marg Peachey for information about suitable materials and dimensions.
Help with wildlife releases Maybe you have a property in the ACT and would be happy to have native wildlife released there?
Or maybe you can offer manpower to assist with actual releases? For instance, brushtail possums are taken in their possum boxes to a suitable tree in a selected location. The box is usually placed in a fork of a tree at least 3 metres above the ground, and either nailed or chained to the trunk or a main branch.
Collect food for animals in care You can help in various ways:
- by breeding mealworms or silkworms for insectivorous birds
- by collecting pine cones for cockatoos
- by collecting acorns, fruit and native branches for possums. Possums also like rose petals!
Please check with the Wildlife Officer first about which animals are currently in care and what their needs are. Fruit and branches must be fresh daily, and branches must be collected 20 metres away from roads because of pollution.
If you are interested in helping in any of these ways, please contact Wildlife Officer Marg Peachey
[Home] [About Us] [Contact Us] [Diary] [First Aid] [Gallery] [Help Us] [Media] [News] [Rehabilitation Stats] [SiteMap] [Sponsors] [Volunteering]
