WILVOS have recently been visited by Gisella Kaplan, legendary for her knowledge of bird
behaviour, in tawny frogmouths and magpies. Professor Kaplan is the author of fascinating
books on these subjects, along with gathering many listeners to her podcasts and ABC radio
interviews.
For decades, wildlife caring was often just recognized as a practice of basic rehabilitation of
native animals, with eventual release back to the wild. Times have progressed and valuable
research is continually being done to improve our rehabilitation methods. Diet and
behavioural aspects have been a big part of this.
Up until the last decade or two our wildlife in care were fed with a diet of non-native fruits
and vegetables, with a minimum of their native diet. Release time must have been so tough,
and searching for familiar foods led animals back to houses, usually inhabited by pets, which
often did not lead to good outcomes. Fortunately in our lovely area of the world we have
ample native fruits, flowers, seeds and nuts to feed to our wildlife in care. At the moment
there are plenty of grasshoppers to feed our insect eaters! We also now know the importance
of providing a natural diet as the most nutritious and practical food.
Observation of our wildlife gives us a better understanding of their needs. Gisella was a
wealth of information on preparation of birds for release, and how to recognize this readiness.
There was so much information to take in on the day, but Gisella’s books – Australian
Magpie, Tawny Frogmouth and Bird Bonds – are all in the local library, and are great
reading.
Donna Brennan Wildlife Volunteers Assoc Inc (WILVOS) PO Box 4805 Sunshine Coast Mail
Centre Q 4560 PH 5441 6200 www.wilvos.org.au
Tawny frogmouths are not owls, they are frogmouths
