Wildlife Vets & Nurses

Back in July, I posted some info on a field trip up to Venus Bay Conservation Park to look at the health of brush-tailed bettongs (also known as ‘woylies’), which were re-released into the park in 1994.

At the end of October I went up to Venus Bay to join DEH ecologists and rangers for a second round of trapping. All animals trapped are anaesthetised for a clinical examination, blood sampling, skin biopsy for DNA analysis and collection of parasites.

This information gives us a good indication of how the population is going. Repeating this at different times of year gives us a good idea of any normal differences between seasons, and allows us to follow trends over time to detect any problems early.