Why the animals in our sanctuary are with us:
Every one of our animals in our wildlife sanctuary is there because it is the best, and a good, option for each individual animal and it’s species. Our animals come from the following situations:
1: Wild wildlife living in our wild bushland.
2: Rescued wild wildlife that can’t return to the wild because
- the animal has a disability affecting its ability to find food or shelter, or to escape from predators.
- the animal has a disability that will require monitoring and possible veterinary intervention through its lifetime.
- the animal is overly “humanised” and will seek out humans (with the dangers of dogs and cats and cars) if released.
- the animal has lost, or never developed, the wild abilities it needs to survive in the wild.
- the animal’s wild home has been altered e.g. due to bushfires or weather-pattern changes or land clearing, so it no longer provides the food/shelter/water/etc. that the animal needs.
3: The naturally occurring offspring of rescued unreleasable animals, while we monitor and manage breeding to balance
- avoiding over-breeding, in-breeding and excessive pressure on our wild habitat, which would be bad for the individual animals and their species, while
- allowing our animals to have a sustainable normal multi-generational social structure conducive to happy well-adjusted animal communities.
4: Animals confiscated by the relevant authorities from smugglers, illegal breeders and/or inhumane conditions
- mostly reptiles, such as lizards being intercepted at Australia’s border posts, on their way overseas as exotic pets or for traditional medicine.
5: Animals in ‘breed for release’ rewilding programs
- Tasmanian devils – we are a retirements home for old devils that other institutions don’t have space for
- Spot tail quolls – we care for individual animals (they don’t like friends and kill each other if co-housed) that are not currently being called on for breeding
- Bilbies – for nearly 20 years we have been breeding bilbies for release back into the wild in Queensland and West Australia to help wild populations to recover
- Eastern quolls – we care for small social groups of animals that are not currently being called on for breeding
- Parma wallabies – we are working with WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and NSW National Parks to improve the genetic diversity of the species and to release animals into other fox-proof sanctuaries in NSW
- Grey-headed flying foxes – we work with Sydney Bats (Kurin-Gai Bat Society) to care for a multi-generational family of bats and to take them into human communities across NSW to teach about the critical role that this keystone species plays in sustaining our gum trees and all the animals, like koalas, that depend on eucalypt trees for their survival.
- Brush-tail rock wallabies – we work with NSW National Parks to give these animals the opportunity to learn how to be wild in our fox-proof wild habitat sanctuary, before being released in the Blue Mountains National Park to help their species recover after the devastating 2020 bush fires destroyed, and changed forever, more than 70% of their habitat.
6: Animals orphaned from their human families, or whose families realise (too late) that they can’t look after the animal
- Australian cockatoos and exotic parrots who, with life expectancies up to 90 years, outlive their human “parents”, and their human “siblings” don’t have the kind of lifestyle that would allow them to care for the bird.
- dingoes, after people realise (too late) that they dingoes are not dogs and cannot be domesticated, even by the cleverest human dog-trainers, into most urban human households.
- reptiles, bunnies and guinea pigs because they make such cute or interesting pets for their children, but no-one in the family was prepared for how much time and work the animal would need.