The Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary started as a wildlife park, an attraction for tourists. Greg Irons had his 7th birthday party there and decided “one day I’m going to own this place.” He went to school, and then to work at the park. Ultimately when the owners retired, he bought it and turned it from a wildlife park s wildlife sanctuary, a place where wildlife harmed, often by human encounters, are nursed back to health, and if possible, nursed released back into the wild.
Over a thousand volunteers contribute to the work: rescuers, tour guides, feeders, cleaners, fund raisers and veterinarians.
We took an evening tour to see animals active at dawn and dusk.
Our first stop was the Forester Kangaroos. These are not rescue animals. They’re holdovers from the wildlife park that had become too dependent on people to be released. The ones at the park are currently the third or fourth generation to live there. We each got a bag of “Kangaroo food” (barley) to hand feed them. They also like being scratched under the chin. They are very soft.
The rescue animals include Tasmanian devils, wombats, quolls and several birds, especially cockatoos, some rescued from the wild and some surrendered by pet owners. The center includes a hospital with two full operating rooms, and an aviary where birds can practice flying before being released, if they can be released.
The animals have their own stories. Tasmanian Devils are endangered for two reasons. They feed on carrion and the best source is roadkill. In turn they become roadkill. Most of the devils in the sanctuary were hurt by cars. The other reason they are endangered is because of a communicable form of cancer spread by devil saliva. Since they like to bite each other, it can spread quickly. So, they take in devils, test for the cancer causing virus, and if they don’t have it, rehabilitate them and try to breed them, creating a population free of the virus. Scientists are working on a vaccine, which has worked experimentally. If they can create devils that are immune to the disease they may save the species.
Wombats usually come to the center as babies. The mothers become roadkill but the baby, safe in the marsupial patch, survives the collision and come to the center to be raised.
Eastern Quolls are endangered because of the loss of habitat. They are extinct on mainland Australia but some survive in Tasmania. This center is working in cooperation with centers across Australia to create an “insurance population,” a genetic bank, of Quolls by breeding them in a protected environment. In one case they have not been successful. They had, what they thought was a breed able female but she would not mate. When they examined her, they found she had no pouch. They thought Athena may be Zeus, but she had female genitals, just not a developed pouch or mammary glands. She is, what can be described, as intersex.
In the past they have had success. Last year they released 24 animals onto a 5000 hectare conservation area. They are fitted with transmitters to track their success or failure. This year some of the females have had joeys.
Finally, we visited the aviary. They have several cockatoos. Some were house pets. One was not treated well and taken from its owner. Another had an owner who took good care of the bird until his illness made it impossible. He surrendered the bird to the center where it is thriving. But when the former owner’s family comes to visit the bird gets excited and calls the family members by name. As I was talking past one called out “hey mate.”
The most interesting bird was an albino yellow tailed cockatoo. Usually, they are black with yellow tail feathers. An albino is all yellow with red eyes. The flock rejected this one because its bright color attracted attention of predators. Bonorong took it in. Collectors who want to breed it to see it can produce other albinos for the exotic pet trade made offers. The center has had to put alarms around the aviary and keep an eye on it overnight because of attempts to steal the bird.
As we got back on the ship the moon went into eclipse. What a way to end the day.
