Injured penguins, turtles getting snagged in fishing line, burnt koalas … inside Taronga Zoo's animal hospital, where visitors will soon be able to watch veterinarians at work
is standing at the end of Collins Beach Road in the Sydney Harbour National Park. She’s dark-haired and capable-looking, and she’s holding a large yellow box, from which issues a tiny thundering noise, as if she’s captured a very small, enraged man. “He’s jumping around like a loon,” she calls as I approach. “Watch out, he’ll bite. He keeps poking his beak out.” An inch-long dark beak suddenly pops out of a ventilation hole, accompanied by a furious muttering.
The little penguin goes suddenly still, straining forward. As Hall lets her go she slides into the water, a dark arrow flying through the blue, 20 or 30 metres in less than five seconds. “Let’s try to get a blood sample,” he says. Turtle bodies, covered not only back but front, too, by an impermeable shell, are notoriously hard to access for treatment. Vogelnest takes blood from behind the animal’s head: dark brown, like a very old shiraz. “She’s in quite good condition,” says Male – a promising sign, since turtles with line tangled in their intestines can no longer eat or evacuate, and die slowly over many months of infection and starvation.
“They’re incredibly powerful animals,” says Vogelnest, “and very, very smart. You really don’t want one waking up halfway through an exam.” Because chimps have such a complex social structure, moreover, getting individuals anaesthetised and out of their enclosure in a way that doesn’t freak out all the others is like organising the order of precedence for a state dinner at the Winter Palace.
Enter one of Taronga’s largest capital works projects in the zoo’s 120-year history: the building of two new wildlife veterinary hospitals – one in Sydney and one at Taronga Western Plains zoo in Dubbo. Costing $80 million in total, and funded by private donations matched dollar for dollar by the NSW government,. The Dubbo hospital is under construction, but the Sydney build is still in the planning phase.
In this context, the vision for the new veterinary hospitals is bigger than simply protecting and maintaining the health of the two zoos’ 5500-odd captive animals. They will also carry the responsibility of being world-first, best-practice centres for Australian native wildlife. They must be not only veterinary hubs, but also research and rehabilitation settings for our most vulnerable species.
I’m sure Taronga CEO Cameron Kerr will watch the zoo’s rock stars receive their medical care – dental treatment for Satu the Sumatran tiger, heart checks for Samaki the chimp – with real attention. But I’m also sure that what he really wants to see is not a puma on the treatment table, but a potoroo. “Australian native animals areanimals,” he tells me as we stand on the site of the new hospital.
“The fires showed us that nobody knew how to help. Not the ordinary people stripping off their blouses to try to save burnt animals, and not the vets either.”
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