She grew up in Zimbabwe with a wild backyard where she and her sister spent many happy days rescuing wildlife in distress. She’s been rescuing native animals since she was a little girl. Like so many of our volunteer carers, Lynleigh’s passion for protecting wild animals sparked in her childhood.
With thanks to the Northern Beaches Council for hosting us every week. Members of the team - Susan, Dr Lou, Lynleigh, Margaret, Joan, Dr Margot and Dr Izi - stationed outside the Coastal Environment Centre in Narrabeen.
“These experts were giving up their time, not just for five minutes but for a whole bloody day! And they do it every week!” “On the most recent clinic day we had THREE wonderfully skilled, professional vets in our van and we just had to pinch ourselves,” says Lynleigh. For Lynleigh and Joan, the Wildlife Mobile Care Unit really is a dream come true, especially when they see the level of talent working together in their wildlife hospital on wheels. Not only do they get to work across a diverse range of species, but they also get to use some cool equipment while they’re doing it. The wildlife van is the perfect setup for the dedicated wildlife vets who volunteer their time. And while from the outside it may look like an ordinary van inside it’s a state of the art veterinary facility packed with diagnostic equipment of every kind. In fact, it took Joan and Lynleigh several years of fundraising to reach the $200,000 needed to buy and commission the unit. Sydney Wildlife Mobile Care Unit is not only 100% run by volunteers, but it’s also funded entirely through donations. And then, of course, there are the orphaned wildlife babies who turn up with their carers for regular check-ups. On an average clinic day, Lynleigh says the team treats anywhere between eight and thirteen patients ranging from turtles with fractured shells, birds with collision-related injuries, blue tongue lizards with crush injuries and a number of other animals with injuries sustained through trauma. Now it’s open weekly, operated by a team of volunteer vets and carers. Over four months hundreds of native animals were rescued and treated in the wildlife van.Īfter months of treating animals in bushfire-affected areas, the wildlife van returned to Sydney. The Wildlife Mobile Care Unit worked so well during its first run down on the South coast that the team took it up to the Blue Mountains and then onto the Snowy Mountains region. We’d end up pulling over six or seven times before we reached the vet clinic.” “By the time you started driving to have been darted was already waking up. During previous bushfires, the search and rescue team could dart only four or five animals at a time before loading them into a car and driving them to the nearest vet clinic - which was sometimes located two or even three hours away. Having the capability to treat animals at the fire-affected areas was a game-changer for the team. The vets were able to assess their injuries on the spot and runners would take the animals back for treatment. Small groups would go out into the bush and tranquilise the injured animals. With the Wildlife Mobile Care Unit stationed as close as possible to one of the fire-affected areas, the search and rescue team sprang into action. Sydney Wildlife’s Mobile Care Unit arriving in the South Coast fire grounds to assist their sister rescue organisation - Wildlife Rescue South Coast (WRSC) Before the fires, we had planned a launch party, but that didn't work out instead, we just held a ribbon across the van, drove through it and hit the ground running.” “We had volunteers swarming all over the van stocking it with medical supplies while there was Tony (from the Nes Shed) underneath trying to install the examination table. “It was a mad, crazy, three-day rush to get the unit ready,” says Lynleigh. On 11th January, ready or not, Lynleigh, Joan and a team of 6 veterinarians were deployed down to the South Coast fire grounds.
The wildlife van was in the final stages of commissioning when the black summer fires of 2020 swept across the east coast of Australia. What started as a cockamamie idea turned out to be a stroke of genius. Now when there are bushfires or a heat stress event, we can just send the mobile wildlife care unit directly to the area.” A genius idea “She wanted to build a wildlife-only hospital, and then it turned into a wildlife hospital on wheels. “It was actually Joan’s cockamamie idea,” laughs Lynleigh. A long term volunteer, she’s also one of the few female trained snake rescuers in Sydney, and now, together with her partner in wildlife Joan Reid, she’s launched Australia’s first mobile wildlife care unit. Snake wrangler, reptile rescuer, bandicoot defender, and co-manager of our new Sydney Wildlife Mobile Care Unit, if there were a superhero league of wildlife carers, Lynleigh Greig would be one of them. Meet Lynleigh Greig, aka “ Snakey” and Co-manager of our new Mobile Care Unit.
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