There’s no such thing as an average day at Australia’s busiest animal hospital. Difficult rescues, lifesaving operations, mystery ailments and extremely cute baby geese; over six episodes, the team in Wildlife ER handle it all.
Originally designed for 8000 patients a year, the RSPCA facility at the centre of Wildlife ER is currently handling 26,000 animals a year, seeing up to 100 patients a day. Some of them have injuries from accidents or attacks by animals; others have been rescued from confined spaces. How do you treat an animal that can’t tell you what’s wrong?
Sometimes their injuries are obvious, like a flying fox with a broken toe or a snake that’s been covered in oil. At other times, like a mother koala with joey that are brought in after being found on the ground, exactly what might be wrong is a bit of a mystery.
One of the thousands of animals treated by the RSPCA vets each year. Source: SBS
One thing you learn very quickly watching Wildlife ER is that sedation is something of a last resort for some animals. Koalas especially can go into cardiac arrest when they’re put under; the big drama in episode one involves a baby koala who stops breathing when it’s sedated. If you’ve ever wondered if it’s possible to perform mouth-to-mouth on a wild animal, turns out the answer is yes – and it works.
The staff at the RSPCA animal hospital are clearly committed to their jobs, but that doesn’t mean they’re all identical animal lovers. Standouts include senior vet Tim, who’s an expert in handling echidnas, and new member Phil, who’s clearly excited by everything going on. There’s also a clear distinction between those unusual individuals who have absolutely no problem handling a carpet snake – they’re not venomous, but they do bite – and the other staff members happy to leave the snakes to them.
Wildlife veterinarian, Dr Rebecca Millers. Source: SBS
Then there are those whose job it is to go out and rescue animals when they get trapped in some man-made location. Episode one features a barn owl that won’t leave a factory warehouse; as there’s also been some bait put down to help control the local mice population, the concern is that the owl might have eaten a poisoned mouse. How is rescuer Jo going to catch a bird the size of a cat that doesn’t want to come down? The answer may surprise you – unless you already know about net guns, in which case get ready for some action sequences as they try to shoot down the bird in flight.
Other rescues are a bit more down-to-earth. Anyone who lives in an area with possums knows just how keen they are to get into pretty much any space they can. Being called out to remove them from unusual locations is almost a daily occurrence. And once they’ve been extracted from a narrow gap in a ceiling or from a wood heater’s chimney, it’s back to the hospital for a check-up.
A rescued ringtail possum. Source: SBS
Not every animal brought in can go right back out into the wild. Often the RSPCA are dealing with animals too young or too injured to survive on their own. Once they’ve passed through the healing hands of the vets and nurses, there’s a steady flow of carers ready to step in to look after them until they can take care of themselves in the wild. Turns out flying foxes grow up a lot like humans, complete with a “teenage” stage where they get surly and remote, and after going through that it seems both parties are almost glad to see the back of each other.
That’s not the only personality on display with the animals here. Koalas often get depressed in captivity (there’s a special, larger unit with an upright tree they can sit on for the ones feeling blue). At the other end of the scale, rainbow lorikeets are nobody’s favourite animal: they’re noisy, they’re aggressive and they bite. And when a snake turns out to be a bit “feisty”, that’s a good thing – turns out an energetic snake is a healthy snake.
A barn owl. Source: SBS
It might be difficult to imagine getting invested in the health of a snake, but that’s the magic of Wildlife ER. There’s so much caring and concern on display for the wildlife, it’s hard not to get drawn in. As one of the team says, it’s all about getting animals back where they belong.
In the case of one particularly feisty snake, that’s probably as far away from the rest of us as possible.
Wildlife ER premieres at 7.35pm on SBS, on Wednesday 8 February. Episodes continue weekly. Catch-up will be available .
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