How many of you wear make up? my guess is most girls out there.

How many of you wash your hair? Hopefully all of you!

Have you ever wondered what goes into them, into fact, all of your cosmetics?

Try to think outside the box,  past ingredients, past fancy labelling, but what the product is tested on.

most cosmetics, toiletries, and medicines are tested on animals.

Now I have stopped buying products that have been tested on animals. I’m not gunna tell you all that your not allowed to buy ANY products that are tested on animals, but I do highly suggest that you check it out for yourselfs.

I recommend checking out ‘Choose Cruelty Free’- I got the starters pack for $5.50 and it has greatly helped me in changing my lifestyle.

Hope I have helped YOU realise what WE can do to help animals everywhere!

Love

Leah♥

With ever increasing urban development, more animals are visiting our homes in suburbia. The Australia Zoo Rescue unit were called to a house where just that had happened. A lovely Green Tree Frog had found a nice little position on the window sill to hang out for the day, when, uh-oh, the kids opened the window and this little guy got caught!

Luckily, the team were able to get him to the Australian Wildlife Hospital straight away. Once the frog was checked out by the vets and nurses, having only minor injuries, they were able to nurse him back to 100% health!

If you see or find any injured or sick wildlife - Call 1300 369 373

Hey everyone!!!

Just recently my family and I flew down to Brisbane for a week and visited Australia Zoo! It was the most amazing expreience ever! My family and I go there and every year since I was 5! (I am now 14) It has changed dramatically over the years and it just keeps getting bigger and better! Terri, Bindi, Robert, Bob, Wes and all the Zoo crew are doing an amazing job at keeping the Zoo the most amazing place!! Congratulations!!!

On our trip we also got to feed the Lemurs and Rhino! (the only group that day!) The Lemurs are such amazing creatures and the Rhino was so calm and they were just gorgeous animals! The whole experience was just unbelievable, I was speachless!!!!

My family and I would also like to thank Anthony, our photographer for the Rhino, Amy, who was with us at the Rhino’s enclosure, Pascelle, our photographer for the Lemurs and all the other zoo staff who made our visit more enjoyable!

Keep up the great work guys!!!

Until next time, Animals Rule!!

The Australia Zoo Rescue Unit are called out to over thirty ‘misadventure’ rescue calls each year. Misadventure means an instance of misfortune or a mishap – and that is certainly what the rescue crew were called out to in Caloundra last week.

James and Kado attended a call about a possum stuck in a house; little did they know that the possum was actually stuck in the fireplace. Possums quite often, at night time, explore warm places to sleep.

This Brushtail possum, aptly named ‘Sooty’, managed to climb down the two storey chimney and make a home in the fireplace – but wasn’t able to get out! The homeowners had become worried after two days of ‘Sooty’ trying to escape – and called the Rescue Unit.

She was definitely not happy about being moved on, but once caught we found out that ‘Sooty’ was indeed a local, and normally lived in the possum box next door. We took her over and released her into the possum box. And from what we hear – she’s staying away from chimneys from now on!

Why would the Mining comapny want to destroy such a beautiful land?! It’s so ridiculous! It sucks how nearly everything these days are about money!! Steve’s place is a sacred land. Its where the whole family use to spend their days! They have looked after it so well! I say that we should all take a stand and say NO!!! TO MINING! Its destroying our planet all for the sake of money!!!

If you want to Save Steve’s Place then sign the online petition and if you want to do more then get a petition sent to you (like I did) and get all your friends, family, neighbours and even your whole town to save Steve’s Place!!!

Stand up for what you believe in! The land has so many memories for Terri, Bindi, Robert, Bob and even Wes and if the land is destroyed then Steve’s dream will be fading slowly!!!!!

Well Done Terri, Bob, Bindi, Robert and Wes for all the amazing work you are doing for the environment, wildlife and Steve’s Place!!

So take a stand and save Steve’s Place!!

Until next time

Animals Rule!!!

On the 19th of April 2009 I went to Australia Zoo for the ninth time. I woke up at 5am and left at 5.30 with my friend.

We made fairly good time and got there a bit before 8.30am, so had to wait for the gates to open at 9am. We saw the ‘zoo keepers for a day’ kids in their red hats going in early. When the gates open we got to go through a quick lane because we paid for annual memberships, we just had to get our photos taken for the card. Then we went to the store at the start of the zoo and bought something and ran across the zoo down to the kids zoo to show our receipt of what we had just bought go get a green wristband that allowed us to meet Terri and Bindi Irwin later that day (there were only 500 bands!).

We then went for a little walk up to the wombats and snakes and made our way back down to the Crocoseum (and meet a camel along the way!). We got seats in the Crocoseum and Bindi and the Crocmen (only 3 crocmen! Not the same lol) performed some of their new songs. After that the elephants came out followed by the snakes and birds. Then out came Terri, Bindi, Robert and Wes for the croc show! Terri also had her ‘crocboys’ come out and do a little dance before the croc came out, and Terri asked Bindi if she wanted to feed a crocodile. They made a joke about channel seven being there and Robert said to “run away from channel seven!”, he’s such a cutie! The big croc came out and Terri and Wes feed and demonstrated some things with it and then it was Bindi’s turn to feed the big croc! Wes was holding onto her tightly and there were a bunch of men around her to protect her, she threw the meat at the crocodile and did such a great job! After the Crocoseum show we went and had a photo taken with a giant snake (that was very heavy!) but this took some time and we missed out meeting the Crocmen (as we walked into the store were they were signing they were just walking out) ohh well!

It was just a bit before 1pm and the Irwin signing was just about to start so we got in line and waited. . .and waited. . .and waited! While we were in line though different zoo crew brought different animals to us like snakes, lizards and birds which was really nice of them! I also saw Robert drive into the store in a little blue car, sign some things for people and leave in his blue car again! I went to the store that was next to this one to buy a Bindi doll for the Irwins to sign and there was Robert! He was wondering around the store looking at keyrings!!! He had a very large security man following him though. After about 3 hours we were finally at the start of the line and got to go and meet the Irwins!!! They were so nice and friendly and said they felt sorry for everyone that had to stand and wait so long and that they had the easy part because they got to sit the whole time. They chatted about were we live; Terri said she loved coming to the Island because it is so beautiful and joked she had a hard time putting the Bindi doll facedown to sign it. She also said we looked cute in our khaki shirts (we just bought them and changed into them before the signing!) and she felt like she wanted to ask us questions because it looked like we worked there! They signed a bunch of stuff for us and we each got a photo with them; they were so super duper nice!!!! And the staff was all so friendly too and was chatting with us the whole time and didn’t try to rush everyone.

Bit disappointed we didn’t get to see so many things because we had to wait so long but can always see them next time. It was just so amazing finally meeting the Irwins!

My photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/Snickals/AustraliaZoo9thVisit

It’s not very often that any wildlife group or organisation will receive a call to rescue a Feathertail Glider. That’s exactly what happened to the Australia Zoo Rescue Unit recently, however the initial call was for a baby possum that seemed to have lost its mum. Found on a walkway inside a school, one of the teachers quickly picked up the tiny animal and made a little pouch in which to store it. When the rescue unit arrived they correctly identified it as a Feathertail Glider – the world’s smallest gliding mammal! Adults only weigh in at 10-14 grams and are no bigger than a small mouse. Like other gliders, they have a membrane of skin between their forearms and back legs; they use this to glide from tree to tree in search of food.

It was a very unusual situation as the little girl had no obvious injuries and seemed to be moving quite well. As a pre-caution she was transported back to the Wildlife Hospital for a check-up.

In Australia, domestic cats are the biggest predator of these tiny mammals as they are often mistaken for mice.

Earlier this week the Australia Zoo Rescue Unit received a call from a concerned resident about one of their local male kangaroos. It was late afternoon and wild kangaroos are difficult to keep in captivity, so the rescue team decided to take Dr Tim along with them to treat the animal in the field.

The injury was confined to the ear so the roo was still highly mobile and would not let us get any close to him. Dr Tim needed to use the dart rifle to sedate the roo and allow us to closely examine the injury.

Once anesthetised, we could see there was an infection inside the ear. Dr Tim cleaned and treated the ear; he also had to surgically remove a part of the ear from an old injury as it was inhibiting the healing process. The kangaroo was also given some pain relief medication and a long lasting antibiotic to combat anymore infection. The injury has began to heal properly and will hopefully be 100% in a few weeks time.

A few weeks ago, a call came through about a 5ft Red-bellied Black Snake at a power station in Palmwoods here on the Sunshine Coast. With 20 staff working at the station and a highly venomous snake around… there was a lot to worry about.

So after organising someone to keep an eye on the snake, Cory and Toby from Australia Zoo Rescue Unit rushed to the scene. With a closer inspection we noticed that the snake was covered in black oil. Toby then looked down into the pit that the snake came out of and the pit was full of sump oil.

So after placing the snake into a bag we then headed for the Australian Wildlife Hospital. With a thorough clean and a few days to recover, we released the snake back into the same area.

All up in was a successful rescue, treatment and release and a thank-you to all involved.

Call Australia Zoo Rescue with any wildlife concerns on 1300 369 652 or 5436 2000.

Our Patient of the Week was found within the grounds of Australia Zoo. If you have ever been to the Zoo you would have noticed the many Eastern Water Dragons that scoot all around the park. One of the Zoo Keepers found an adult Eastern Water Dragon with a very large thorn sticking out of her side. On close examination our vet found that the thorn, from a palm frond, had gone through the one side of the abdomen and was sticking out the opposite side! She was aptly named ‘Skewer’ and underwent surgery to remove the frond.

In surgery our Vet found that the frond had pierced the stomach twice! She was able to carefully remove the foreign body and repair the internal damage . Skewer has had antibiotic and anti-inflammatory treatment and is recovering well. We expect her to be released back at Australia Zoo in the next two weeks.