Vocational Days- Dolf feeds the Penguins!

Today we all went our seperate ways to participate in our voacational days. We ended up in Melbourne, Warragul and on Phillip Island. We all learned a great deal from our Australian hosts and had a wonderful time.

Today I (Dolf) was at Phillip Island Nature Park for my vocational day. It was a great time, with several of the staff showing me several different aspects of park management. The site is self funded and managed by staff and a CAO who report to a board. They face significant challenges balancing native species (key ones including little penguins and shearwaters) with 500,000 park visitors, some local homes in the park boundary and a long list of invasive species. I could have posted dozens of shots from today, but settled for the following:

Ranger "Veg" took me on an tour of their seed collection, propagation and greenhouse areas.

Marg the wildlife rehabber working with a juvenile bushy tailed possum

Force feeding a Little Penguin as they will not eat on their own in rehab.