{"id":841368,"date":"2026-08-03T07:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T07:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841368\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T07:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T07:25:10","slug":"australia-has-long-relied-on-volunteers-and-wildlife-carers-as-bird-flu-spreads-they-will-need-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841368\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia has long relied on volunteers and wildlife carers. As bird flu spreads, they will need support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia had years to prepare for the arrival of bird flu. The deadly, highly transmissible H5N1 strain emerged in late 2020<\/a> in Asia, before spreading to every other continent bar Australia. <\/p>\n

After the first case was confirmed<\/a> in Western Australia on June 19, federal Environment Minister Murray Watt claimed the nation was well prepared<\/a>. Preparations include A$47 million<\/a> of on-ground action such as improving habitat<\/a> and controlling introduced species, as well as boosting surveillance. The virus is now spreading<\/a> domestically, with mass mortality events being detected<\/a>. <\/p>\n

What the arrival of bird flu shows is how reliant conservation in Australia is on volunteers. Early on, the first people responding to sick birds were often volunteers and wildlife carers \u2013 even though authorities have consistently asked the public to \u201cavoid, record and report<\/a>\u201d any sick or dead animals. Wildlife carers in Western Australia called for help<\/a> and protective gear after finding themselves on the frontline<\/a>. The WA government is now distributing PPE<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As the virus spreads, nursing sick birds and animals is no longer possible for volunteers. We will need these volunteers to report sightings and support injured wildlife. They will need support.<\/p>\n

\"two<\/a><\/p>\n

Australian wildlife carers put in many hours and their own funds to care for wildlife. Bird flu is set to make life harder. Pictured: famous wildlife carers the \u2018Twinnies\u2019 (Paula and Bridgette Powers) wearing protective equipment at their centre on the Sunshine Coast.
\n Darren England\/AAP<\/a><\/p>\n

Why is Australia so reliant on volunteers?<\/p>\n

Australia is wealthy and has a huge variety of species. Almost half the economy has a moderate to very high reliance on nature<\/a>. But spending on conservation is very low.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that conservation is financially stretched<\/a> in Australia. The Biodiversity Council estimates spending<\/a> for on-ground programs is just 0.06% of the federal budget. <\/p>\n

Because conservation has been underfunded for many years, much of the work has fallen to volunteers. <\/p>\n

In 2019, researchers estimated<\/a> Australia had over 20,000 volunteer wildlife carers, each of whom spend an average of $5,300 of their own money on food and equipment annually (about $100 million in total). On average, each volunteer put in 32 hours a week. If we were to pay minimum wage for their time, it would cost over $1 billion<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It was no surprise that volunteers would form a critical part of Australia\u2019s response to bird flu, alongside official preparation<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In South Australia, not-for-profits and volunteers partnered with the state government to create a distributed surveillance network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s largest wildlife carer organisation, WIRES, has mobilised its network<\/a> of 4,000 volunteers nationally to focus on surveillance of sick animals. <\/p>\n

\"woman<\/a><\/p>\n

Wildlife carers have long responded to disasters affecting wildlife, such as the Black Summer fires. But bird flu is different. Pictured: WIRES carer Julie Mills bottle-feeding an orphaned joey.
\n Stephen Saphore\/AAP<\/a><\/p>\n

What role do volunteers have?<\/p>\n

Much of our wildlife care is conducted by volunteers, not-for-profit groups, or vets working pro bono, who are already \u201coperating in crisis mode<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a clear gap between the official advice to avoid contact with any sick animal and Australia\u2019s long reliance on volunteers to care for wildlife.<\/p>\n

In July, volunteers spoke out over concerns this advice could mean<\/a> many animals go untreated out of caution \u2013 even those who have injuries or other illness. <\/p>\n

In New South Wales, the official advice is that injured birds or animals should still be reported to wildlife carers \u2013 but sick birds or animals should be recorded and reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Bird flu can infect humans in rare circumstances, but it doesn\u2019t jump<\/a> from person to person. <\/p>\n

Regardless of the small risk, volunteers should not have to risk their health to care for animals. <\/p>\n

Authorities must provide the life jacket<\/p>\n

The bird flu crisis is yet another reason a big increase<\/a> in conservation funding would make sense. <\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean turning away from the work done by thousands of passionate volunteers and wildlife carers. They provide scale which can\u2019t be achieved by professionals alone. <\/p>\n

It would make sense to be more strategic in supporting volunteers. Directing a small amount of funding to support coordination of volunteers is incredibly efficient compared to paying professionals.<\/p>\n

The key is to match requirements with volunteer capability. Replacing professionals with citizen scientists is clearly the wrong approach. But volunteers can do many tasks that give vital, useful data in the fight against bird flu. When partnered with professional scientists, their effect can be much larger. <\/p>\n

To use a metaphor, we wouldn\u2019t have \u201ccitizen pilots\u201d. But we do ask passengers to put on their own life jacket because it\u2019s easy and the pilot can\u2019t do it for everyone. Likewise, non-professionals can do specific tasks with the right support (we provide the life jacket, they put it on).<\/p>\n

This article\u2019s author is involved in the Great Reef Census<\/a>, which relies on volunteers to collect an enormous amount of data from the Great Barrier Reef through a simple photo survey<\/a>. It\u2019s not a replacement for professional monitoring. But it gets results<\/a> because scientists deliver the technical components, while the volunteers provide the scale scientists can\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Which way forward?<\/p>\n

As the virus tightens its grip, experts are calling for an urgent funding boost<\/a> to give wildlife a better chance of survival.<\/p>\n

Boosting the official response is important. But we also need to ensure Australia\u2019s volunteer workforce of citizen scientists and wildlife carers are supported. <\/p>\n

Volunteers don\u2019t have to keep showing up. They give their time to causes they care about. As our recent study<\/a> found, keeping volunteer citizen scientists engaged needs recognition and ownership of the project.<\/p>\n

Realistically, Australia\u2019s sheer size means any bird flu surveillance program will rely on a distributed workforce of volunteers reporting sightings, while scientists focus on technical aspects such as genetic testing or biosecurity measures.<\/p>\n

It makes clear sense to support these vital volunteers as a way to strengthen both wildlife conservation and national biosecurity.<\/p>\n

Wildlife Health Australia has detailed advice<\/a> on what to do if you see sick, dying or dead wildlife. You can report sick or dead animals via the official Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia had years to prepare for the arrival of bird flu. The deadly, highly transmissible H5N1 strain emerged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-841368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}