As Melbourne and Victoria's regions continue to grow, a new trend has emerged. More wildlife is being injured, particularly west of Melbourne, causing Werribee Zoo's veterinary hospital admissions to reach record highs. But experts say changes can be made to improve the way humans coexist with native wildlife.
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00:00Laila Merritt has been rescuing animals for 10 years but demand for her services has never
00:08been this high.
00:09So about 10 years ago we might see maybe two or three rescues a week but now during trauma
00:15season we would probably get maybe four to five presentations a day.
00:19Laila rescues wildlife across the greater Geelong region from kangaroos to possums transporting
00:25many of them, like these baby lorikeets, to the veterinary hospital at Werribee Zoo.
00:30They get hit by cars, they get attacked by invasive species such as our domestic animals
00:37and it has increased the amount of phone calls that we get asking to help.
00:41The hospital's injured wildlife admissions have quadrupled over the past decade, many
00:47of them from Victoria's highest growth areas, Wyndham and Geelong.
00:52Lots of noises there, lots of bubbles and squeaks.
00:55Around 2016 the zoo dealt with less than 200 wildlife cases per year but in the past two
01:01years that number has grown to more than 1,000.
01:04The boom in wildlife admissions probably occurred around eight years ago and that seemed to
01:12be motivated by a lot of housing development in our region.
01:17The population of Wyndham has risen more than any other region in Victoria over the
01:22last five years, growing by nearly 70,000 people and it's likely to continue with the
01:28Victorian Government's housing targets proposing 2 million new homes across the state by 2051.
01:36The biggest developments expected in Greater Geelong, Melton and Wyndham.
01:41Quite often when we are designing new suburbs we're only thinking about one species and
01:46that's us.
01:48But there's a huge diversity of native animals that are sharing our cities and we do need
01:53to be considering them.
01:54Most admissions here are due to vehicle collisions, entanglements in fish or fruit netting and
01:59attacks by domestic dogs and cats but some experts suggest small changes can help us
02:05co-exist harmoniously with native wildlife.
02:09Drive slowly, drive to the conditions, try not to drive at dawn and dusk when the animals
02:16are most active.
02:17Fairy friends in need of a lifeline.