Copied from East Gippsland Environment Newsletter:
A plea to help the WA bushfire victims – rare cockatoos.
In the controversial human-orientated coverage of the WA fires, there has been virtually no mention of the impact on wildlife – particularly threatened species. Colleagues over in the south west, are wildlife carers who are totally devoted to helping rescue and rehabilitate native wildlife. Below they are appealing for help to feed starving animals.
The blaze that has burnt out more than 38 000 hectares of bush near Nannup destroyed feed trees in what was important habitat for a number of colonies of black cockatoos, and at this time of year, the bulk of their feed in the flowering seed trees ( jarrah and marri) has been burnt out.
Dave and Dee Patterson are local cockatoo carers (and forest activists) who are now supplementary feeding large numbers of cockies daily, in addition to the 70+ rehabilitated birds they already have. Most of these were victims of the last fire! when Dave and Dee stayed at the property in the midst of the area’s evacuation to be able to feed and care for the birds. They had intended a release of Carnaby’s and Baudin’s cockatoos into neighbouring national park, but scheduled burning, and now these out of control fires, has made this an impossibility.
Dave and Dee are now buying seed commercially to feed the birds coming in each day, and funding this personally. Given the extent of the fires, it is unlikely that these birds will be able to feed in the area for some time.
It would assist tremendously if anyone is able to make a donation (even $20), to chip in and help cover the costs of this rescue operation. Their bank details are: Dave and Dee Patterson ANZ bank bsb 016 580 a/c 5551 75146
Please use ‘birdseed’ in the reference field of any donations to Dave and Dee’s account, this will enable them to easily track it, and provide the cost information to DEC and for any WA forest alliance campaign comment on the fire and community response. If you’d like any more information, images of the aviary and the birds coming in, or have further ideas about this, feel free to give Lauren a call (0308 748 939), or Jess Beckerling 0488 777 592 – who are working to get this story properly covered in the media. ===============================
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