Work Experience Placements

Wildlife Education

February 2020 to Present

I have been working with a Wildlife Education group since 2020. In this placement and volunteering position, I have assisted in presentations, husbandry, wildlife handling and communicating with the public. While volunteering, I have handled several reptiles, such as monitor lizards, bearded dragons, blue-tongued skinks, pythons, file snakes, geckoes, tree snakes and water dragons. I have also handled several possums, gliders, a wombat, and bettongs or bandicoots. In this position, I have worked with students; young to tertiary age; land holders, government workers and the general public. I have obtained a card to work with children during this position and have learnt a number of different skills and techniques to work with the public.

Husbandry at UQ Gatton Wildlife Teaching Facility

April 2019 to November 2021

While finishing my Certificate IV in Captive Animals and Bachelor of Wildlife Science, I volunteered with the Wildlife Teaching Facility on the Gatton Campus. In February 2021, I was offered a casual position at the facility and I continued to volunteer work there in the Captive Animals Certificate. During volunteering, I have participated in constructing materials and structures for the facility in addition to assisting in cleaning, feeding animals, cleaning water bowls, cleaning animal furnishings, reporting concerns or providing ideas to supervisors, supervising new students and recording data into spreadsheets and ZIMS.

Wildlife Rescue, Rehabilitation & Education

July 2020 to December 2021

As a volunteer, I assisted mainly with husbandry and physical work. I was able to feed wallaby and kangaroo joeys and puggles (young echidnas). I also worked with several different birds, adult echidnas, turtles, lizards, and birds of prey. The physical work consisted of moving mulch for enclosures, racking, shovelling, moving branches and trees for koala enclosures, and moving crates and carriers for wildlife. There were a lot of instances where I accompanied the owner on drives hours away to collect animals and accompanied her to collect feed for animals. I also reported any concerns or issues to the supervisor and worked with several other volunteers. In cases where I was the most experienced volunteer, I would supervise and provide guidance.

ReefTeach (now Marine Discoveries) Work Placement

29th of November to 17th of December 2021

Education & Training

Before the interns were able to get into the water and begin the surveying, there was a couple of learning that was required. For example, the first week of the internship involved sitting with the supervisors to identify different shaped corals, different algae types and different important reef species. One of the images above provides an example of the activities. We were presented with a slide show of different corals with arrows and we had to identify the arrowed corals and their specific shape or type. This was also done with the different types of algae (coraline, grass etc.). This provided the background that was required in each survey and also assisted us in identifying the corals that were healthy and what they were expected to look like.

Surveying

There were three main survey techniques; CoralWatch Health Chart surveying, Tourism Weekly and Rapid Monitoring.

The CoralWatch Health Chart Surveying was the most simple method of surveying. We were required to to take the chart to the corals by freediving down for a period of time and holding the card against the coral. Corals that were recorded as B1, C1, D1, E1 were considered to be bleached corals (This, thankfully, was never recorded). The colours were held up against the darkest and lightest sections of the coral. For example, the image above where I am diving down, was towards a type of branchy coral. I held the card over the coral and identified the darker and lighter hues. This was then written on the back of the card in the reporting session, along with the date and the type of coral which was recorded. The survey was to provide an overview of some of the coral health in the Great Barrier Reef.

The Tourism Weekly Survey is a survey that is utilised by tourism vessels and Reef Teach. It acts as a method of “Citizen Science”. Tourism companies and vessels would often undertake these surveys to benefit the conservation of the reef. For example, data ranging from coral type, potential impact, grazing fish species and macroalgae was recorded and this data is then utilised by reef conservationists. This type of survey is commonly conducted by tourism vessels to strengthen the relationship between tourism and conservation of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks. The way this survey was conducted was by swimming over an area of the reef and using the codes provided to determine the number of organisms. The presence and absence of these organisms was also required to gauge the health of the ecosystem.

Rapid Monitoring had two components. There was a requirement to swim for 10 minutes and take a tally of animals that were listed on the sheet (e.g. sea cucumbers, giant clams, coral trout etc.). The second component required a 350 survey with a 5 metre radius circle. This was difficult in some cases due to the water slightly drifting us away. The best method was to identify a centre point and do a “dry-run” of the radius to identify key landmarks. For example, if there was a large coral, this would be a good centre point. I would then swim out from that point by roughly 5 metres and slowly move clockwise while looking at the corals and back at the centre point to ensure there was still a 5 metre distance. After the radius was established, we were tasked with providing rough percentages (Total 100%) of benthos (the ocean floor). For example, after doing a few laps of the radius, an over view of the extent of benthos was established. In one example, the image above, there was 40% Live Coral and 60% Live Coral Rock. Therefore, this particular point had a lot of live coral and coral rock. The survey also took records of the impacts of the site (any disease? invasive species? coral bleaching? broken corals? etc.).

Turtle Rehabilitation Care

Apart of this industry placement involved us assisting with the care of resident turtles of a Turtle Rehabilitation Centre. Two turtles were long standing residents and one was set to be released. The tasks involved required feeding, cleaning and providing enrichment for the turtles in care.

Feeding: The turtles were fed a variety of food resources. These included squid, prawns, fish, lettuce and broccoli. The squid was often cut in half and the spine was removed. Prawn was peeled and the exoskeleton was removed. The broccoli was scattered throughout the tank with the addition of lettuce. Fish was often cut into cubes. Vegetables were fed to the turtles before being fed the fish and proteins.

Cleaning: After feeding, there was often debris in the tank which could become clogging hazards. This is where we used the water vacuum. The end of the pipe sat outside the tank and the debris would be deposited in the sock that was attached to the end of the pipe. After the debris was removed, the vacuum and the sock was rinsed and put away. The filters that filtered the salt water through the tank was also taken and rinsed and clean filters were placed back on.

Enrichment: Enrichment is for the animal’s wellbeing and benefit. Enrichment in this case, was getting into the tanks to clean and move around as this tempted the turtles to follow the handlers and keepers. Food was also scattered around the tank to encourage the turtles to move and follow the food. The filters and the currents in the pool