Free The Wildlife Games by Bindi Irwin Page A

of the zoo and over to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, which was situated across the car park from the zoo itself.
    Bindi’s plan had always been to finish the day where the whole idea had begun. It was seeing Dr Dianne work so hard that had made her want to raise money for the hospital in the first place, and now it was time for the contestants to see what had inspired their day’s activities. It wasn’t so much a challenge as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
    While all the crowds and shows and excitement of the zoo went on only a few hundred metres away, the wildlife hospital kept on doing its job at all hours of the day and night, out of the limelight.
    Once the contestants had been introduced to the staff, and the film crew had set up, the contestants were shown around by volunteers who helped out at the hospital on a regular basis. They spent an hour showing the kids what they did at thehospital – from cleaning out the koala cages, to changing a bandage on a monitor lizard, to cutting up fish innards and feeding a cormorant with a damaged wing. Mimi and Ana were both drawn to a little joey in an incubator crib who had been pulled from its dead mother after a car accident. The joey was being closely monitored, as there was no guarantee that it would live. If her mother hadn’t been killed, the joey would have stayed in her pouch for another three months, at least, and so no-one was sure he’d survive without his mum.
    â€˜But do you think he might survive?’ Mimi asked the kind-looking volunteer who was stationed next to the crib, keeping watch and expertly knitting using a soft red wool.
    The volunteer looked over at her charge. ‘I hopeso, dear. We’ll do our best for him.’
    Dr Dianne came over and gave the volunteer a warm smile. ‘And has Agnes told you what she’s knitting?’
    Ana took an appraising look at Agnes’ handiwork. ‘It looks like a coat for a doll.’
    Agnes shook her head. ‘Oh no, dear. It’s a joey pouch, so when this little man is ready to leave the incubator, he’ll have a nice warm home that’s his alone.’
    â€˜Oh, that is just so sweet!’ said Ana.
    Agnes smiled and returned to her knitting, regularly glancing over at her tiny patient.
    Dr Dianne took the group to an outside area like a stable, where there were recuperating koalas in four of the enclosures.
    â€˜Why are there so many koalas here?’ Jasonasked, perplexed. ‘What can go wrong with a koala? Apart from getting caught up in a bushfire, I guess.’
    Dr Dianne explained. ‘Well, the poor koalas have quite a lot of negatives stacked against them. Bushfires are definitely one threat. Another is that with new housing developments going up all over Queensland, the koala’s habitat is getting smaller and smaller, which means the little marsupials have to travel across roads to reach the trees and new leaves that keep them alive, and they’re just not fast enough to get out of the way of cars.’
    â€˜That’s so sad,’ said Ana.
    Dr Dianne agreed. ‘And then there are the dog attacks that come as a result of living close to suburban areas, and on top of all that, they’re prone to a condition called chlamydiosis, which is aserious and sometimes fatal disease that is endemic in most koala populations all over Australia. It can cause a variety of symptoms including blindness, infertility, urinary tract infection and pneumonia.’
    Jason was looking a little shell-shocked as he paid close attention to a little koala who had four large stitches across his head, and was missing a chunk of his left ear. ‘I had no idea that such a well-known Australian icon was under attack from so many directions.’
    Mimi and Declan had moved a short distance away and were with Bindi, checking out a little microbat that was in a small wire cage covered with a black cloth. ‘Fraser here had a torn