On a couple of days I also had the chance of looking after turtles, helped out with the cleaning of the pools and feeding them. In the picture I am placing a turtle patient back into its pool, after receiving medical treatment from a nurse.Leafing In Leafing Out, you might be wondering what is this? As you know Koalas only eat Gum Tree Leaves but only a certain type of leaves. And they truly are avid eaters, they eat and sleep all day long. One of your task as a volunteer is to make sure that each enclosure is filled with fresh gum tree branches for koalas to grab and eat. Take a look at the pictures so that you can get an idea of how leafing in and out is done.
During the cleaning process you have to remove the old leaves and replace them with fresh gum tree leaves. You must develop the feel for it, what has to be removed and what can be left inside. Moreover some of them prefer eating only a certain type of gum tree leaves, so at the beginning it was very confusing, but after a couple of days you get used to it and you do it naturally. If you ask me, I still cannot distinguish a blue gum leaf from a casuarina gum leaf But do not worry experienced volunteers and the lovely wildlife hospital staff help out with that, pulling out the right bunches of fresh gum tree leaves for you to fill the pots in each koala enclosure!
Michela
(to be continued)
