Joan Woodmore

This is a follow on from the Puggle mentioned briefly in the November Newsletter. We presume a member of the public found the Puggle – perhaps a visitor to the area who saw the WIRES sign on the front fence of one of our members, Sandra Byrne at Taloumbi. It was left, wrapped in a clean towel, on the front door mat, for our carer to find on returning home.

He came into care on 27th October weighing 259g. We say “he” but sex can’t be determined with an Echidna so they are all “he’s” This one was kept at Taloumbi for a short time to make sure he was feeding well and then transferred to Joan Woodmore at Townsend on 8th of November and has been eating so well - he now weighs over 800g.

He has been named “Puggle” and his story was in the local Daily Examiner and reprinted here for members to see. Very soon, he will be sent back to our carer at Taloumbi as there is a plentiful supply of termites, which make up a large proportion of an Echidna’s diet. Joan decided not to bring the food to the Echidna – rather take the Echidna to the food source. As soon as he reaches a healthy weight of around 1.2kg, he will be released back in the wild.

Although Joan has found raising an Echidna a challenge, as they need to be kept cool – around 25 degrees - which can be very difficult and hard to achieve, when summer temperature hover in the high 30’s – she has loved every minute shared with this animal.

I know that Joan found it fascinating and so interesting to follow the development and all the changes that occur - from eyes opening, ear canals forming, spikes emerging through the skin - not to mention the changes in his food from milk to solids. How lucky we are, as Wildlife Carers, to have the privilege of raising and releasing one of Australia’s unique Native animals.

Congratulations to Joan for a job well done. On 17th January, the Puggle was returned to Taloumbi and enjoyed the endless supply of termites, mixed with some dirt from a termite nest, ant eggs and small carnivore mix. His weight increased to well over a kilo by early March. Late in the afternoon of 16th March, Joan and Sandra took the Echidna into the local country side for release.

There was to be no thanks given - no see you later – no last minute wave goodbye – not even a backward glance from “our” Echidna to his two Foster Mums who had so enjoyed the experience of raising this fellow. He wasn’t long exploring the surrounds before he found an old hollow log to climb into and begin digging into the rotten wood – we presume looking for his next feed. We took one more photo before we left him to enjoy his life in the wild.

THE PHASCOGALE STORY
They didn’t come in together; they came in one by one – all from the same Mum over four days. She would have had maybe seven or eight babies clinging to her for dear life, on her nightly hunt for food to feed such a large family. On her travels over four nights, she has dropped them off, one  by one. Two little girls and a boy weighed in at 17g and one tiny little girl that weight only 16g. Sadly we lost brother two days later.

Mum’s nest was about 8ft from the floor, up in a very low ceiling of a shed in the caller’s yard – Lynne was quite happy to leave the rest of the family there, as long as they didn’t drink her home brew! Mum seemed to have taken advantage of Mr Rudd’s ceiling insulation offer, as her nest was made from, what we could see of it, almost entirely of pink insulation bats, plus what looked like a discarded jumper, a piece of unravelled knitting and numerous bits of string and twine – a masterpiece – ingenuity seems to be the name of the game with these clever animals.

Dropping her babies in her nightly travels, it took me four trips to Brushgrove, to get my part of this little family together. The three girls survived after such a long fall onto an even harder landing – it says a lot for us females – we are a tough lot! These delightful little creatures have been in care for two weeks now and are doing well on five feeds a day with a special little syringe and are taking in 1ml each feed.

Their eyes are open now and their little tails are starting to fluff up and are a whopping 22g and Tiny at 20g. They will be released back at Brushgrove when they reach a weight of around 100g, to be with their rellies who are still there, terrorising the insect population.

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