Recently, when I was visiting a friend out of Kempsey, we found a small flying fox desperately trying to escape the clutches of the barbed wire fence on one of her paddocks.
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It was extremely upsetting to see the little creature struggling to free itself and so we phoned the local FAWNA group - what an education that was.
Two dedicated and knowledgeable young women arrived within half an hour with all the necessary equipment to cut and free the tiny creature.
They did it with much care and expertise and we were relieved to see how well they calmed her down.
They told us, she was about four months old and should still have been in her mother's care, but they hoped with a little TLC they should soon be able to take her back to the local community that lived not too far away.
Mary Clare Fisher and Cloudia Blears-Zapata are Kempsey residents but the North Coast network of FAWNA stretches from Nambucca to Foster, Gloucester, Seal Rocks and Bulahdelah.
The many volunteers are trained to deal with all eventualities and provide support and assistance to each other.
Mary Clare became interested as a young teenager, and in fact, as she left us she was off home to feed two baby sugar gliders that had been rescued. A three hourly job!!
It was a joyful experience for us to see such commitment to our wildlife and to know that there are people out there who will tend and care for injured fauna - birds, possums, bats, little joeys and the rest.
If anyone finds an animal in distress please call 02 6581 4141 as soon as possible.
Especially a baby as they will not survive for any length of time without help.
And if you would like to know more about the organisation, or how to get involved, google FAWNA - NSW Inc. give them a call or visit www.fawna.org.au
Photo and story by Milly Jones, Kendall
NOTE: FAWNA (For Australian Wildlife Needing Aid) is the only group licensed for all species in its 18,000 sq km area it covers. FAWNA works closely with Koala Preservation Society and Koalas in Care and points out that WIRES is not licensed to work on this part of the Mid North Coast. In the last financial year FAWNA’S volunteers handled over 3000 animals, birds and reptiles that were called in by caring members of the public to the rescue hotline 6581 4141.