Australia is known for the outback and the variety of animals who inhabit this continent and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. They are also known for the way they care for all animals, even the snakes. Steve Irwin, who was known as the crocodile hunter, was born in Australia and his legacy of raising awareness about animals lives on at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, which he founded.
The Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital opened in 2004 and the veterinarians there have helped thousands of animals since then. The hospital is located close to the Australia Zoo in Beerwah,Queensland, Australia. It was the dream of Lyn Irwin, Steve Irwin’s mother, to establish an animal hospital to serve Australia’s wildlife, so the wildlife hospital was opened and dedicated to her memory. The hospital is very successful and is now the largest wildlife hospital on the continent of Australia.
Close to 100 emergency calls are received each day by the wildlife hospital’s staff, and there may be more than 30 different species of animals who are admitted into the hospital in a single day, including koalas, Tasmanian devils and kangaroos. Some of these animals are injured from natural causes, but more than half of them are car accident victims or domestic pets who are attacked by wild animals.
Australian animal vets who work at The Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital are dedicated to returning animals back into the wild whenever possible. Many of the animals at the hospital are brought in by their owners, but they also have a rescue team who goes out into the field to collect sick, orphaned and injured animals who need to be treated and rehabilitated before returning to their homes.
The Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital houses a state-of-the-art veterinary facility with a laboratory, an intensive care room, and enough holding facilities to separate male and female animals of the same species as well as non-diseased and diseased koalas. So many koalas are orphaned in Australia that the wildlife hospital has a special enclosure to help hand-raised koalas develop climbing skills with minimal human contact so they can be released into the wild.
Numerous species of animals receive care and treatment from the Australian animal veterinarians at the wildlife hospital, but koalas and other native species are of special interest to the vets and they spend hours researching migration patterns, diseases, and animal health management so they can offer the best possible care to each animal who comes through the doors.