FAUNA E-News 2014:10



FAUNA E-news 2014:10
In the spotlight
Crowd funding a food bank
Having come on board at the AGM, Julie Z. (erstwhile mother of Raymond, pictured, who has now been successfully released) has taken a running leap into fundraising and initiated our first crowd funding campaign to raise money for a food bank which will supply formula, teats, etc. to F.A.U.N.A. carers. We have set a goal for this campaign of $5000-00 and have raised $270-00 in 7 days (nearly have a 20kg bag of Divet in the kitty). Please visit our campaign, donate if you can, defiinitely share it far and wide with your family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances across any social media channels you play in http://www.gofundme.com/f859u8
Vale Bev O’Hare
For all my wildlife carer friends, a lovely lady named Bev O’Hare died earlier this week. For many years Bev provided creches and release sites at Canungra for kangaroos, wallabies and other macropods. Her funeral will take place on Tuesday the 14th October at 10am at Centenary Memorial Gardens, 353 Wacol Station Road, Sumner. She chose this site because she would be near macropods which live in the area. Her friends have been invited to wear her favourite colour, yellow, at the funeral in her honour. She has earned her rest. Julie Z.
Upcoming F.A.U.N.A. events
Echidna workshop	Christmas lunch 2014

Our next training workshop will be on Echidnas led by Trish LeeHong and will be held on Saturday 1 November 2020 from 9:30am to 2:00pm. The workshop will be held at the Coominya State School, Main Street Coominya in the library. The cost for the workshop is $15 for F.A.U.N.A. members and $20 for non members. Coffee and tea are provided but please bring a plate to share for morning tea and lunch.	F.A.U.N.A. will be having its annual Christmas get together on Saturday 13 December 2020 from 12 noon. Once again, we will be holding this event at Porter’s Plainland Hotel on the front veranda. Food and drink is at your own cost. If you wish to attend, please contact the Secretary, Sue Holmes on [email protected] or 07 5466 4144 to reserve a seat.
F.A.U.N.A. updates
From the desk of the Vice President, Julie Zyzniewski
Firstly, I would l like to thank you for voting me onto the committee as the Co-Vice President. I have been involved with wildlife as a carer and an activist for over 20 years and I never imagined when I met Sheree Crawford & Mike Holmes 9 years ago that I would be an office bearer with this amazing group. I am looking forward to working with the dedicated, devoted people that make up your committee and with all the members. F.A.U.N.A continues to fill the need for rescue and care of our wildlife, but F.A.U.N.A needs looking after too if it is to survive, Read more…
AGM Update
The AGM was held on Saturday 20th September 2014 and the 2013-2014 committee stood down and the 2014-2015 committee elected to office. The 2014-2015 Management Committee is represented by the President: Sheree Crawford; Co-Vice President: Julie Zyzniewski; Co-Vice President: Trevor Cheeseman; Secretary: Sue Holmes; Treasurer: Jacqui Blanch. We have also elected a Working Committee to assist the Management Committee in running the group, particularly in the areas of education, fund raising, news streams and publicity, Read more…
From the desk of the Secretary, Sue Holmes
Hello all, as you know we have not produced a newsletter for quite a while now. This was due to the ill health of some members of the committee and other committee members not having the time to back up all functions. Now we are all back on line and we will once again be producing a major newsletter every three months with a monthly update in between, Read more…
From the desk of the Treasurer and Webmaster, Jacqui Blanch
As announced at the AGM, we now have an online database to hold all group functions, member records and animal records as well as many minor functions and a project management portal. Member records have been entered and training records are being entered in October. Once this is complete, we will be opening the database for members to use in early November, Read more…
E-news contributions
Starting with this major edition, F.A.U.N.A. will be issuing electronic newsletters only on a monthly basis. Each edition will be full of events, information and tips for wildlife carers. Every three months, the E-news will include the quarterly reports from the committees and registers. If you have an article, item or tip you would like to see in the E-news, please send it to Shona Ford on [email protected] before the end of each month or call her on 04 5948 4938 to arrange an article. If you think you will be a regular contributor, please contact the Webmaster, Jacqui Blanch on [email protected] or call her on 07 5465 6190 to arrange direct upload access.
Non F.A.U.N.A. events
What’s on the calendar
October 14 2014: Grass Identification Training – www.greeningaustralia.org.au October 18 2014: Fundamentals of Native Birds – www.wildcare.org.au October 19-25 2014: National Water Week – www.savewater.com.au October 22 2014: Fauna Spotting and Handling – www.greeningaustralia.org.au October 26 2014: Ducklings – www.wildcare.org.au October 29 2014: Weed Identification Training – www.greeningaustralia.org.au November 2 2014: Introduction to Caring for Reptiles and Lizards- www.wildcare.org.au November 3 2014: Introduction to Plant Identification – www.greeningaustralia.org.au November 19 2014: Fauna Spotting and Handling – www.greeningaustralia.org.au F.A.U.N.A. members may attend Wildcare trainings at a cost of $10
Carers’ Corner
Dehydration in our native animals
Now that the weather is starting to heat up and the majority of areas are still in drought, it is a good idea to be aware of the signs and symptoms of dehydration in our native wildlife. The most obvious sign is the animal will become lethargic and will seem to be withdrawn. The eyes are a very good indication that the animal is suffering. The eyes appear sunken or dull and this can be noticed in possums, macropods, birds and even in turtles and tortoises, Read more…
Ticks and tick-borne diseases, protecting yourself
Hot off the presses from the Australian Association of Bush Regenrators is a great booklet on ticks, tick-borne diseases and protecting yourself (and your animals) Thanks to Annette Colling from RSPCA for sending this through the Wildlife Heroes Channel. To read this info, please download the booklet here…
Let’s go shopping
Wombaroo Pinky Pouch Oil	Teats
A lubricant for furless joeys designed to help with the skin care of joeys orphaned and in human care. It helps to keep the skin soft and supple and ease peeling due to heating and exposure to the environment when the Joey would normally still be in the pouch. Non greasy and safe to be ingested. WPP Oil contains no petroleum or paraffins which may have a laxative effect. Made entirely from oils of plant origin and classified food safe. It is an oil that is naturally present in the milk of several species (e.g. rabbits, goats, horses and human breast milk). BENEFITS: Rapidly absorbs into skin to form a protective barrier; softens and soothes skin; lubricates by reducing friction against the pouch liner; does not contain moisture so is not prone to microbial or fungal growth; completely free of synthetic preservatives. Available in 250gram bottles from www.wombaroo.com.au	Silicone: Baby Critter Teats View on Facebook Phone 07 4789-0573 Silicone: Burston Blues Email [email protected] Mobile 04 2972 7837 Various: Australian Wildlife Supplies Email [email protected] Phone 07 5426 8088 Mobile 0417 749 501
	Possum boxes
	Kathy Silk Phone 07 5465 6935 or Mobile 0410 334 661 $25.00 per box
	Rodents
	The Rat Shed Phone 07 5424 6519
Milk formula	Native plants
Gatton Produce (E.M Redmonds & Co P/L) Phone 07 5462 1139 Divet $24-00 per kilo and has most other formulae on hand	Pete’s Hobby Nursery 10 Patrick St, Lowood QLD 4311 Phone 07 5426 1690 or Mobile 0412 243 740
Show us the money
2013-2014 donations
F.A.U.N.A. wishes to thank the following people and organisations for their donations. The amounts below show the profit raised on each donation stream after direct costs were deducted: I.G.A. Laidley: $92-40 Raffles: $209-00 Anonymous Donations: $648-85 Zoo Studio Canvas e-Bay auction: $947-34 Somerset Regional Council for their grant of $500-00 And a big thankyou to Trevor Crawford (as usual) for doing a chocolate drive which raised a profit of $842-99
Grant approval
In the last quarter, we have been successful in obtaining a grant from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund for the sum of $17,866-37. F.A.U.N.A. wishes to thank Ian Rickuss MP for his support in this application. This grant was obtained to update much of our digital office and field equipment such as data projector, digital camera, printer and laptops plus accessories. We also obtained iPads, iPhones and Night Vision Cameras. We still have Night Vision Cameras available for loan to financial members. These are recommended for our release sites as they enable us to see what species use our land and assist us with decision making when considering what species we are able to release on those sites. Please contact Sue Holmes you wish to borrow one of these cameras.

Around the traps
Winners are grinners
Our Mother’s Day raffle winners were: Nick: Ticket Green C 18 – Handmade Lap Rugs Libby: Ticket Orange B 14 -Bride Doll Caitlin: Ticket Green C 06 -Pet Vet Pack Congratulations to you all.
Christmas Lunch 2013	RSPCA Wildlife Hospital Visit

A good time was had by all at the Porters Plainland Hotel, Plainlands. We occupied the deck area, and all enjoyed one another’s stories on the year and it was great to catch up with everyone in a relaxed atmosphere other than a workshop. Much food was eaten and occasional drink imbibed.	A group of 10 F.A.U.N.A. members were given a behind the scenes tour of the RSPCA Animal Hospital at Wacol on 30 August 2014. It was a very enlightening day seeing how this busy animal facility is run and having a chance to ask questions of the vets and staff. Thanks to Annette Colling and Shona Ford for organising the visit for us.
Reports from the Wildlife Registers
The stats in these reports include all animals that have been recorded as coming into care since the publication of the last newsletter. Future editions will include figures for the preceding quarter. Please contact the Secretary, Sue Holmes on [email protected] or 07 5466 4144 if you are available to care for wildlife as she has a feeling it’s going to be a busy season this spring. If any F.A.U.N.A. carers are in need of a verandah cage or perhaps an outdoor aviary please call us as we still have some available for loan. The stats to date are as follows:
Macropods (Sue Holmes)
Redneck Wallabies: 72 Eastern Greys: 37 Swamp Wallabies: 9 Whiptail Wallabies: 6 Blackstripe Wallabies: 3 Agile Wallaby: 1	Since our financial year ended (June 30), the numbers are on the increase already. A big thankyou to everyone who has helped out in the past year, it is greatly appreciated.
Possums & Gliders (Sheree Crawford and Sue Holmes)
Ringtail Possums: 35 Brushtail Possums: 107 Gliders: 25 If any carers are in need of a verandah cage or an outdoor aviary please call us, as we have some available for loan.	If you are interested in doing Ringtail Possums please let us know but do not forget that the foraging requirement for Ringtails is very demanding and can take several hours out of every day. Ringtails are a creche animal which means you may have up to six per aviary and they subsist 100% on formula, leaf, blossom and flower forage with flowers kept to a minimum, therefore you must source a lot of leaf to successfully raise a creche.
Bats (Sue Holmes)
Black Flying Foxes: 12 Grey Headed Flying Foxes: 2 The last year has been a reasonable one as far as Flying Foxes are concerned. We did have a couple of events, one being a fallen tree in the Laidley colony which unfortunately included a tree containing mothers and their young. Thank you to the member of the public who reported this. With the help of Bat Conservation and Rescue, Trevor & I attended in the pouring rain and between us we were able to rescue mothers who were stuck under tree limbs, Read more…
Birds and Raptors (Hazel Kranenberg and Trevor Cheeseman)
Various Birds: 35 Square Tailed Kite: 1 Whistling Kite: 2 Peregrine Falcon: 1 Spotted Harrier: 1 Brown Falcon: 1 Brown Goshawk: 1 Nankeen Kestrel: 1 Brahminy Kite: 1 Boobook Owl: 1	Hazel reports having cared for approximately 35 birds coming into care of various species. She was very excited to have received, successfully raised and released a Grebe. Meanwhile, Trevor has had a couple of reasonably busy years with a variety of raptors having come into care over that period.
Road Kill
Please keep a register of road kill and send this information to Sue as this helps us to determine where animals are crossing, where the high fatality areas are and also which species are most at risk. Remember to check for live joeys. This information is sometimes requested by Councils and Government Authorities and can be helpful in promoting the protection of wildlife and also in raising funds for grass roots volunteer organisations such as ourselves.
The fine print
Disclaimer
The statements and information contained in this publication have no legal status and are provided purely for the interest and benefit of F.A.U.N.A. members to assist members in their decision making processes. This information is for guidance only and should not be relied upon to the exclusion of obtaining professional or first hand advice. No liability can be accepted for any error or omission by the publisher, editor, contributors, officials of or the Association as an entity. Fostercare of Australia’s Unique Native Animals Association Inc. (F.A.U.N.A.) does not specifically endorse any of the products described in this newsletter, but provides the information as a service to its members. F.A.U.N.A. hereby expressly disclaims all liability of any kind whatsoever for any loss, damage or other consequence which may arise from any person using the products or information detailed in this E-Newsletter.
© 2014 F.A.U.N.A. ABN 24 274 942 904