HOT WORK: Wildlife Rescue South Coast volunteer John Meany feeds a baby wattle bird he rescued from heat exhaustion.
THE two recent over 40-degree days have kept members of Wildlife Rescue South Coast busy.
John Meany from Worrigee is one of the organisation’s bird specialists.
In the past two weeks he has attended a number of properties where residents reported seeing birds suffering from the heat.
“I have had a few young birds here that were alive, sadly now only one remains,” he said.
“At one stage I had a little red wattle bird and young turtle dove.
“They were very lethargic. The turtle dove died, but the young wattle bird has survived.
“It has been quite bad on the hot days.
“Birds suffering from heat stress will often be on the ground and acting lethargic.”
Mr Meany said people who were concerned about the welfare of birds in their backyard could help by placing a shallow dish of water in a shady and protected spot under a shrub or small tree.
As for other fauna, Wildlife Rescue South Coast macropod co-ordinator Belinda Gales said she was seeing animal behaviour that was out of the ordinary.
“We have reports of three kangaroos in the water since Christmas.
“Unfortunately only one survived,” she said.
“On Saturday night a female eastern grey with a baby took a big swim across the Shoalhaven River.
“Surprisingly they can swim quite well, but that was an unusually long swim.
“It was a very healthy animal, so I can’t imagine any other reason for it to do that other than to escape the heat.
“However, the kangaroo died and the baby was too small to be hand-raised.”
She said the first report at Christmas, was a kangaroo in waist-deep water.
“That one was wounded, it didn’t survive,” she said.
“We also had a report of a swamp wallaby swimming near Plantation Point.
“The wildlife is absolutely heat exhausted, we’re getting a lot of rare species from the bush coming into yards looking for water,” she said.
To report an injured animal phone the Wildlife Rescue South Coast hotline on 0418 427214.
