President Rivlin meets a koala
President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin has visited the wildlife hospital at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo in Sydney…and patted a koala.
Here’s looking at you…President Rivlin meets a koala
The president met koalas and other marsupials (kangaroos and wallabies) and a platypus.
Following the brushfires that raged in Australia recently the wildlife hospital treated hundreds who were injured.
President Rivlin thinking about patting a echidna
According to the zoo’s figures, in the last round of brushfires in Australia, around a million animals were killed.
Some 1400 animals are treated by the hospital every year in order to return them to their natural habitats.
The president met with the zoo’s management and staff, including veterinarians and keepers, and heard about their rescue attempts over the last few months to help animals caught in the fires.
They said that tens of thousands of Australians had tried to rescue wild animals from the fires, explaining that the extent of the destruction would take at least 12 years to return the animals to nature. “We are talking about animals that live 8-12 years, so only the next generation and the one after that will return to nature. The extent of the
…and now a platypus
destruction is immense and it will take a long time to regrow,” said the chief vet and head of the zoo, Cameron Carr.
“This is a natural disaster that happens every few decades, not every few centuries,” said the president, expressing his concern, and added that concern for wildlife in Australia was heart-warming and they way they were treated was inspiring. He added, with pride “our veterinary teams in Israel, including at the wildlife hospital in Beit Dagan, work with similarly impressive professionalism, despite the fact that our natural habitats are more limited. Here, you have a great wealth of wild animals and the care paid by the people of Australia is similar to the compassion and concern that I know from the way we take care of animals in Israel.”
All photos by Koby Gideon/GPO
