Wildlife shelter expects deluge of rescue call-outs during heatwave

Kangaloola Wildlife Shelter rescuer Chris Lehman said recent floods had driven many animals such as kangaroos, koalas and possums out of their usual habitat.

He said the shelter had received more than 80 calls to assist distressed animals in the past few weeks.

"We expect to get many more koala rescues from people who find them on the ground not moving, or baby koalas abandoned because their mums can't look after them," he said.

"We also get a lot of calls about possums, like the one I'm caring for at my home at the moment - this one was found on a man's tyre in his carport, very frightened and distressed.

"They get weak and dehydrated so we generally get them in, feed them up and then release them.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"It takes more than one day of extreme heat to stress them - but we've got 37, 37, 35 degrees over the next few days so we're going to get a lot of calls."

Mr Lehman said on the hotter days last year the shelter had tended to about 14 distressed animals a day.

"We usually get about four or five calls a day when it heats up," he said. "This month we've had more than 80 so far and I'm expecting many more this week."

He said there were ways people could help save animals without interacting with them. "If people know that they have animals on their property, they can leave a dish of water out, that will help the birds too. It's not making them dependent on you, it's just helping them through an emergency.

"Floods to have driven animals out of their usual habitats, and we've seen this on the freeway between Albury and Wodonga where there was an abnormal number of kangaroos getting killed. Near Rutherglen, kangaroos are moving into vineyards."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: