How Halls Gap Zoo evacuates animals, cares for large species during bushfire

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

As the Grampians/Gariwerd National Park burned in Victoria's recent summer bushfires, Mark Treweek was nearby, keeping a watchful eye over his prized giraffes and rhinoceroses.
As director of the Halls Gap Zoo, he had little choice but to spend long hours closely monitoring the large species that couldn't be evacuated.
Mr Treweek slept in his ute at the zoo for three weeks, "watching and waiting" as the helicopters and water-bombing planes flew overhead and ash fell from the sky.
These were the final stages of an evacuation plan he and his staff had to put into place twice last summer.
On December 17 last year, dry lightning started multiple fires that ended up burning about 76,000 hectares of farmland and the Grampians/Gariwerd National Park.
People in the small town of Halls Gap were forced to evacuate, as did many of the exotic animals at the town's nearby zoo.
Like home owners, regional zoo operators are encouraged to have a fire evacuation plan to refer to in an emergency.
"We've got a list of animals that must get out, then we've got another list of what we can move, depending on space," Mr Treweek said.
Birds, reptiles and small mammals such as monkeys were transported in emergency pet packs and safely relocated within hours to Werribee Zoo and Ballarat Wildlife Park.
"All the zoos are there for each other, trying to help each other out the best we can in these sorts of situations," Mr Treweek said.
Some smaller animals were also relocated to zookeepers' homes.
"Our head keeper lives in Halls Gap, so she had to evacuate and stayed at our house with some animals, so she knew exactly what was going on and how to look after them," Mr Treweek said.
"You gotta be fluid, and moving with your plans because you never know which direction [the fire is] coming from and what could happen.
"An outline is good, but you can't exactly stick to the plan because things change."
When it became clear that the larger animals couldn't be evacuated, Mr Treweek made the difficult choice to stay behind to care for them.
"Can you load a giraffe or rhino into a crate quickly?" he joked.
Working on little sleep, he spent long hours closely monitoring the animals, trying to keep them calm in the smoky heat.
"There are some animals that will stress too much from the move, and so you are looking at the animals' welfare to decide whether it's a wise thing to move them or not," he said.
In between, he patrolled the grounds to watch for falling embers.
The zoo's three giraffes — Zawardi, Sumari, and Kabelo — and two white rhinos — Kapa and Winston — sheltered in "fire-proof enclosures".
"Every morning, the keepers would come in if they felt comfortable, feed whoever was still here, and leave," he said.
"Then I'd just stay, watching the mountain."
The fires were brought under control after 21 days, and in mid-January, the animals and keepers began to return.
Then in February, another bushfire sprang up in the Grampians, and Mr Treweek and his team had to do it all again.
Seven months on, the Halls Gap Zoo has experienced a wave of support from the community.
A fundraising effort raised $93,000 for the zoo, which took a significant financial hit during the crucial summer tourist period.
"A lot of people put their hands up asking what they could do to help," Mr Treweek said.
But as summer approaches, the looming threat of bushfires is ever-present.
"If you get too emotional or stressed about it all, then you're not going to have your head screwed on straight to get things done right … and that's all we could do and then wait and see," he said.
"But it's a bushfire, there's only so much you can do and we were prepared as much as we could be."