In 30 years, wildlife rescue service WIRES has helped a million native animals

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WIRES volunteer gives animals a voice

Natalie Higgs is one of 2500 carers for WIRES, the largest wildlife rescue service in Australia.

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It's the baby animals that break Natalie Higgs' heart. "They are so massively vulnerable without their mums," she said. "They have no idea what to do, where to go."

People used to feel the same way when they came across sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. It was one of the reasons Mikla Lewis founded WIRES ��� the NSW wildlife information, rescue and education service��� in 1986.

Since then, WIRES has provided advice and assistance for 1 million native animals in NSW, from cockatoos to kangaroos, blue-tongue lizards to wedge-tailed eagles.

WIRES founder Mikla Lewis feeds kangaroo joeys at her property in Grenfell. Photo: WIRES

It celebrates its 30th anniversary this year as the largest wildlife rescue service in Australia, handling 250,000 calls a year.

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Ms Higgs, 23, is one of 2500 WIRES carers statewide. She is caring for eight possums and a tawny frogmouth at her Collaroy home, and will ultimately return them to the wild.

"I love being able to go on rescues, to see an animal that's in trouble and be able to save its life," she said. It was important that people gave something back to wildlife, given how often animals were injured or displaced because of human activity, she said.

Hello, possum: WIRES volunteer Natalie Higgs and a baby brushtail possum. Photo: Wolter Peeters

WIRES chief executive Leanne Taylor said society recognised the need for a service to rescue, rehabilitate and release native animals or to ensure those seriously sick and injured "can be humanely euthanised and not just left to die".

As the state's population increased, so did pressures on native animals ��� from habitat loss, heavier traffic, more non-native predators ��� and demand for the service was growing each year, she said.

With just 2 per cent of WIRES' funding coming from the state government, the not-for-profit service relies on donations and volunteers.

For years, Ms Lewis and her team co-ordinated the trained rescuers and carers, and organised vets and volunteers, from a disused classroom in Forestville. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 2012 and now cares for wildlife on her Grenfell property.

"It is a vital service, not only for the animals but for people as well ��� it is very distressing to find an injured animal or an orphan and not know what to do with it," Ms Lewis said.

"Getting involved in WIRES is a way for people to feel like they're doing something to make a difference, and not feel so helpless."

Ms Lewis said people had much to learn from wildlife.

"Wildlife can live simply; they just need enough to maintain their existence," she said. "We humans want so much and think we need so much. We are expecting wildlife to exist with less and less as we take more and more."

For wildlife rescue, call 1300 094 737 or go online.

Animal rescue tips from WIRES Do not approach snakes, monitors, flying foxes, microbats, large kangaroos or raptors, which require specialist handling. Contact a vet as soon as possible. Most will treat wildlife free of charge. Remove any threat to the animal. Keep people and pets away. If it is safe to do so, contain the animal in a warm, dark, quiet place. Do not give any food or water, unless instructed to by a vet or WIRES.

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