Tweed Valley Wildlife Carers

Wildlife Emergencies

You've found a sick, orphaned, or injured native animal - What should you do?

Finding a sick, orphaned, or injured native animal can be very stressful - for you, as well as for the animal. On this page you will find a quick 1 2 3 guide of what you can do immediately to minimise this stress and greatly increase the animal's chance of recovery.

Improper rescue can hurt both the animal, and you! Which is why we train all our volunteers in correct, confident, and calm rescue technique. Native animals are not used to being handled and are very susceptible to stress. If handled improperly, they will struggle, hurting themselves even more. It is therefore absolutely vital to take the utmost care in the rescue of native wildlife, and to reduce this stress as much as possible.

1. Remove any threats

Evaluate the situation, and remove any immediate threat to the animal. This could mean locking cats and dogs away to alleviate stress until a trained rescuer arrives. It could mean asking someone to stop or divert traffic if the animal is on the road.

2. Minimise stress 

Where the animal is not a danger to you; does not need specialist handling, eg a raptor and flying-fox; or is not going to be injured further: place or wrap the animal in a soft towel or cloth, and then gently place it in a secure, ventilated box. Put the box in a warm, dark, quiet room, away from noisy children, pets, TV, radios, etc, and do not disturb. The stress associated with human contact can result in death.

For other situations, go to step 3. immediately. 

3. Seek advice immediately ...

If you live in the Tweed Valley area of Northern NSW, call us immediately on 02 6672 4789. Otherwise, contact your local Parks & Wildlife office, who will direct you to your nearest group.

On calling TVWC, we will give advice on what to do until a trained rescuer arrives. We will then assess the animal, and, depending on that assessment, either take the animal to a vet, or wildlife foster carer.

All of our carers are fully trained in the care and rehabilitation of native animals through certified courses, workshops, hands-on experience, and constant feedback. Some have opted for advanced training with animals such as raptors, koalas, and flying-foxes which require more specialist treatment. So, rest assured your animal will go to the right person for the best chance of a speedy recovery.

4. Four?

Make a cup of tea or coffee, and pat yourself on the back. Why? Well, if you've just done the above three, you have given that animal the best chance it has towards a speedy recovery and to take it's place back out in the wild again as soon as possible. Thank you...

Specific animals and injuries

We will be building up our Wildlife Emergency page to include more specific information on what to do when you find a specific injured, ill or orphaned animal. In the meantime, check out our Be Wildlife Friendly page on some of the ways in which you can assist our native animals, so that we decrease the chances of their being injured or orphaned.