The Shelter has had another busy year attending wildlife casualties.

With a total of 101 cases for 2014-2015.

Koalas – 57
Birds  – 22
Kangaroos/Wallabies – 21
Echidnas – 1

See charts below for detailed information.

The Shelter operated by Susie & Stephen Pulis and Committee of Management wishes to extend a sincere thank you to the Residents, Tourists, Businesses, Organisations and General Public for their amazing support which goes to the care of our precious Wildlife.

Without donations we could not operate at this capacity as we are totally reliant on donated funds; we don’t receive any government funding.

Our Team consists of dedicated group of Volunteers, consisting of 6 registered Wildlife Carers and 16 people who work tirelessly to run the Shelter. The Shelter is busy all year round with care 24 hours 7 days a week. We also have residents who allow us to cut browse from their properties and people who help maintain the browse plots. A special thank you to these people.

The Shelter has also established a Facebook page and a website designed and maintained by local business Joocy operated by Sean Perkins and Craig Strike. This local business has very generously donated all of their work, time and advice to us.

The Shelter has had 3 successful fundraisers and conducted a major raffle which was drawn at Easter. Thank you to all the people who supported our fundraisers and our major Raffle by buying and selling raffle tickets.

A sincere thank you to our Raffle sponsors:

Bulls Cruisers, Dahlsens Mitre 10 and Gippsland Lakes Escapes for donating the prizes. We are very grateful.

Congratulations to our Winners:

1^st Prize: April Burnett from Bairnsdale
2^nd Prize: Marc Metcalfe from Churchill
3^rd Prize: Jenny Lamb from Beaumaris

The raffle money raised, $7070, has been put into a building fund to go towards the building of a purpose built treatment facility to treat and house primarily Koalas.

A special thank you to our Vet, Main Street Veterinary Practice, the backbone of the Shelter. This dedicated hardworking team provide us with unconditional care 24 hours 7 days a week when needed.

Special mention to vets Jade Hammer, Grant Kuseff, Albert van Zyl and nurses Louise South and Karen Natrass for their amazing support.

The following statistics have been prepared and lodged with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning a requirement we must do every year in accordance with our Shelter license.

We are required to record all Wildlife whether found deceased or alive. We encourage all people to continue contacting us regardless of whether the animal is tagged or untagged deceased or alive.

Finally, thank you to all the people who ring us when our Wildlife is in need. Without the residents looking out for our precious wildlife there would be many suffering animals.

Raymond Island Koala & Wildlife Shelter looks forward to another year caring for our Wildlife.

January 2013 –  March 2014

The Shelter officially opened in January 2013.

The year was huge with many challenging cases and at times many tears shed. The total number of cases for the year was 76.  See graph below for summaries.

52 Koalas, 6 kangaroos, 5 Wallabies, 1 Echidna, 11 birds, 1 Possum

Highlights were the successful releases and hand raising of 3 young orphan babies.

The Shelter operated by Susie & Stephen Pulis wishes to thank the hard work and dedication of fellow Wildlife carers Rosie Nuttall, Shelley Robinson, Mary Dharmarajah, Barbie Richardson & Nancy McMurray.

We also wish to thank the Committee and volunteers who worked tirelessly on building works, fundraisers/donation tins, browse plot maintenance, advertisement and hours spent at meetings.

Thank-you to East Gippsland Wildlife Rehabilitators Group Inc. for endless support & donations.

A special Mention to Marie –Louise & Charlie for sponsoring myself as a Wildlife Carer.

Thank-you to Les Bradd, for his hard work in maintaining our browse plots and for helping us feed hungry koalas with browse sourced from his property.

Thank-you to Coralie & Peter Foxton, Liz & Jude Gunn, Pam & Ron Basket, Amanda & Julie-Anne for allowing us to cut browse on their properties.

We also wish to extend our sincere thank you to the Residents, Tourists & the General Public for helping us care for the Wildlife. Without your calls and generous donations there would be many suffering animals. We are extremely grateful for the support. We rely totally on donated funds and are a non profit voluntary run organisation.

Finally a special Thank-you to The Main Street Veterinary Practice and special mention to

Jade Hammer, Grant Kuseff, Albert van Zyl & former vet Jason Wong. These hard working, dedicated people make themselves available to us at all times, day and night, to help us treat the sick and injured Wildlife.

Raymond Island Koala & Wildlife Shelter looks forward to another year caring for our Wildlife.

The attached Statistics has been prepared by RIK&WS and official data lodged with DEPI.

We are required to record all animals whether they are found alive or deceased. We encourage the residents to continue contacting us even if the animal is deceased, tagged or untagged we need to record all for accurate numbers.

The Christmas-New Year period has kept the shelter very busy with many calls to injured and sick animals.

We have currently 5 Koalas in care, 1 kangaroo and 5 birds. Care is intensive with wounds resulting from tree falls & dog attack requiring flushing, dressing and bandage changes as well as antibiotics and pain relief administered. Supplement milk feeding is up to 4 times per day.

We have in care:

“Theresa” young female Koala with hand/finger injury

“Barry” young male Koala with large wound to his left leg

“Lilly” older female Koala with large wound to her hand

“Matilda” young female Koala in care due to starvation

“Rocky” young male Koala in care due to starvation

“Indi” baby Noisy Miner

“Nigel” injured cockatoo

“Squawker” baby Rainbow Lorikeet

 “Stephen” baby Rainbow Lorikeet

“Rainbow Dash” injured Eastern Rosella

Statistics as follows:

Koalas Total 15

Fell from fallen trees– 2m/ 1f deceased & 1f in care

Dog attack– 1m in care

Starvation – 1m/5f deceased including a 5 month old joey,

1m/1f in care

Injury- 1m successfully released /1f in care

Eye Infection- 1m successfully released

Kangaroos Total 3

Hit by car– 1m deceased

Caught in fence– 1m deceased

Dehydration– “Tyson” 10 month old Joey died in care . He was an orphan after his mum passed away on the 40 degree day. We were unable to catch him for 24 hours .He suffered extensively as a result and died from complications of dehydration. The Shelter was very saddened by his loss as we tried hard to rescue him and try and save his tiny life.

He was in care for 3 days. Thank you to residents Barry and Myrna for their help and care for this little fellow.

Birds Total 6

1 baby Magpie Lark fell from nest in storm died in care

1 baby Noisy Miner in care

2baby Rainbow Lorikeets in care

1 Cockatoo injured in care

1 Eastern Rosella injured in care

Well the year is nearly over, Christmas is upon us and for the Shelter it has been another huge year looking after Raymond Islands Wildlife. In addition to attending to our Wildlife we had the DEPI Koala Management Program to attend. We held a very successful Fundraiser in October and we have another big fundraising event planned for December 28^th.

We have launched our new website koalashelter.org that has been designed and maintained by local business “JOOCY” www.joocy.com.au, Sean Perkins & Craig Strike. They have been very generous to donate all their work to us and have done an amazing job. A special thank-you to them.

The website will be updated regularly so check in often to see the latest info and additional pages that will be added over time. It’s a work in progress which will eventually include a field guide designed for tourists to access when visiting our Island.

We are also pleased to have Vicki & Victor Trofimov support us with a generous donation from their new business  “Ride the Koalas”.  www.ridethekoalas.com.au  Look out for these amazing bikes around the Island showing tourists our precious koalas.

We are pleased to welcome new committee members, Shelley Robinson, Paula & Graham Holmes, Cath & Lionel Winzer, Jan Franz, Carol Jones & Mary Dharmarajah.  With existing members Rosie Nuttall, Susan Crosby, Darren Greenaway, myself and Steve we now have a great Committee of Management as well as a dedicated Fundraising team. We are also pleased to have Stephen Manning join us and he is now an official wildlife Carer. Stephen currently has 2 birds in care and is doing a wonderful job. Stephen volunteers at DEPI once a week and also assists us with the Koala management program, cutting browse, monitoring and assisting with the koala joeys.

Our fundraising committee has been working tirelessly in recent months raising funds for the Shelter. Without these generous hardworking people we could not operate. The cost is continually increasing with the workload so high.  The Main Street vet has been enormous support for us with very generous discounts on all treatment. In saying this though, our expenses are still high due to the large number of animals we treat.

With the Shelter so busy we have plans to expand our facilities in the future to enable us to treat & house intensive care patients.  Currently we transport to the vet to treat and at times Koalas need to remain there in care, these costs are expensive.  Our bathroom/Family Room is often transformed into Koala intensive care, this isn’t ideal for the Koalas. (or the family)  Our new treatment facility is urgently needed as well as additional enclosures and rehabilitation pens. This can only happen when we raise enough money to do so.

The statistics are high with 84 koalas coming through the Shelter in 22 months. Of those, 62 are deceased, 20 were released successfully and 2 remain in care.

Wildlife statistics July 19th – December 9^th 2014.

Koalas:

Total 24 (9 females and 15 males) 8 euthanaised, 5 found dead, 5 released, 4 died in care, 2 currently in care

Information on the above numbers

Deceased

1 hit by a car

1 had a fall from tree

7 malnourished

4 Unknown

4 dog attacks

Female dog attack victim, leg badly torn apart, sadly euthanised

Released

1 with arm injury and infection – successfully rehabilitated

1 Rescue from power pole

3 malnourished successfully gained enough condition to release

“Thomas” released after spending time in care for malnourishment

“George” released after shoulder injury and infection

Currently in care

Kangaroos: Total 4

Female carrying baby caught in fence was euthanised after unsuccessful rehabilitation and sadly her baby died in care.

Male found dead on beach unknown cause of death

Male joey approx 12 months old hit by car died in care suffered major mouth trauma. 

Wallabies: Total 2

Young female approx 18 months hit by car deceased.

Nursing Mum hit by car, deceased, no sign of the baby.

“Charli” sadly euthanised after unsuccessful rehabilitation.

Birds: Total 9

3 Baby Swallows

3 Baby Noisy Miners

I Baby Magpie

1 Baby Lorikeet

2 Eastern Rosellas

1 Eastern Yellow Robin

7 Deceased / 3 still in care

“Indi” Currently in care – Baby noisy miner loves cuddles & kisses

Echidna

Male hit by car, successfully released

Ali our 21 month old Eastern Grey kangaroo

Ali is now fully weaned off milk but still offered supplement of oats, sweet potato and pellets

He is free to come and go as he pleases and spends the evenings /nights grazing with the local mob that live here.

He has fitted in well and been accepted by the mob.During the day Ali likes to sleep at a lot, laze around outside or on his bed inside.

Ali at 4 months

Ali now 21 months