🔥 🦎 🥺 WILDLIFE BUSHFIRE SAFETY TIPS 🥵 🦘 🔥
- Take domestic animals with you if you evacuate, or keep pets indoors so that wildlife can flee safely through your property.
- Leave out shallow bowls of water for animals and birds escaping fires, and add a few sticks or stones on one side to allow smaller animals to escape if they fall in.
- Keep a cardboard box, gloves, personal protective equipment and a towel in the boot of your car in case you find an injured animal that you can safely contain without putting yourself in any danger.
If you own a swimming pool and live near where fires are burning, there are some simple things you can do to assist wildlife that may be seeking water:
- Cover the pool edge to provide animals with a gripping surface.
- Use thick rope or a bodyboard anchored outside the pool for exhausted animals to rest on.
- Place bricks or large stones next to pool steps to help animals climb out easily.
- Regularly check the pool, including the skimmer box, at least twice a day.
- If you rescue an animal that has burns, do not attempt to feed it. Please wrap it loosely, ideally in 100% cotton fabric, place it in a ventilated box with a lid and keep it in a dark and quiet place whilst waiting for a rescuer or for transport to the nearest vet. Water should not be poured from a water bottle above the animal.
- Keep all wildlife away from children and pets. Handling wild animals should only occur in the course of containing the animal to reduce additional stress.
- Take injured animals to your nearest vet if you can safely, as they will require urgent vet assessment. Because fire conditions can change rapidly, please make sure you are informed about what is happening in your area before transporting an animal to care.
- Do not approach injured snakes, flying-foxes & bats, large kangaroos, raptors or monitors, as these must be rescued by trained specialists.
- No one should enter active or seemingly dormant fire grounds to rescue wildlife: leave this to trained, licensed wildlife carers who are authorised to work with first responder agencies. Do not hinder firefighters or emergency services during this time.
