Timmi.

Age:  10
Favourite Animal: Brushtail and Ringtail possums

A bit about Timmi:

Timmi has become part of the furniture here at Wild Days over the years. She grew up living next door and now that her family have moved to another home, thankfully not too far away, Timmi continues to visit weekly to lend a hand.
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Timmi's favourite animals at Wild Days are the possums, both brushtails and ringtails. She finds the possum life cycle interesting and enjoys watching how they behave, how they eat and sleep, and watching them grow. She has learnt how the possum fur changes colour as they grow and also changes the way it feels, starting as very soft baby fur growing into adult fur.

Timmi has said that she has learnt about the needs of young orphaned possums and that they need comfort:
 "When they're young, they need cuddles because they should still be around their mum." 
"When they're middle-aged, they can only be around people a little bit because they're learning to be defensive towards people." 
"When they're adults, they need to keep away from people because they're going to be released into the wild."

Timmi finds it interesting that different animals have different behaviours. She enjoys helping make a fun environment in the seagull cage and then has a laugh when they eat, as they are fast greedy eaters.

Timmi recently did a presentation at school. She chose Wild Days Wildlife Shelter as her topic and wrote about the possums, lizards, turtles, birds and kangaroos she has met at the shelter. She shared with her class how the kangaroo joey stays in the pouch for a long time (7-8 months) before exploring. The presentation had pictures of the animals and information about what we do at Wild Days. She included what she has learnt from being here and how she has a unique experience coming to Wild Days.  Timmi hopes to be a Zookeeper, Vet and Wildlife Carer when she grows up.  

Timmi likes to tell family and friends what she has done at the shelter and enjoys learning. She says that "Kay teaches me a lot about different types of animals and about a lot of different birds I've never seen before, like the White Faced Heron."  

Elizabeth.

Age: 10 
​Favourite Animal:  Australian Magpie

A bit about Elizabeth:

Elizabeth first came to Wild Days Wildlife Shelter when she was looking for a project to complete as part of her Girl Guides Junior BP Award.
Elizabeth worked hard at learning about the animals at Wild Days and in particular, the types of birds that came to stay.
She researched the different beak types and feeding diets of the birds that came into care and made a chart for reference.
For her project she found a recipe for seed bells and then directed her Girl Guide Group in a session of seed bell making.
The bells were two different types, for small and large beaked parrots.
Elizabeth came to Wild Days and presented us with these wonderful seed bells and had the honour of watching some of the birds enjoy her work.
Elizabeth has shown her passion for spreading the word about wildlife. She has learnt that many birds that are 'rescued' and come into care, may have been rescued by mistake. That is, birds that are 'fledging' from their nests are the ones being rescued as they cannot fly. The problem is, that is perfectly normal. Birds spend time on the ground after leaving their nests to run around flapping their wings building their muscles for flight, something they cannot do in the nest. After learning that this type of 'bird napping' was going on, Elizabeth presented a talk to her whole school assembly about what a fledgling is and why it is important for it to stay with its family during this time. She described how to identify if it was injured, such as limping, or if it was just a healthy fledgling. 

Congratulations to Elizabeth for her amazing efforts at educating her fellow students!