The Wildlife Games (8 page)

FOR CHALLENGE NUMBER FIVE,
the contestants split up. Ana went over to the tiger enclosure, Jason to the snakes, Declan to the crocs and Mimi to the cassowaries. There were crowds waiting to hear each of them speak for five minutes on these animals and why they found them particularly special.

Declan, who thrived in this type of scenario, took top honours by overrunning on his speech for an extra 15 minutes. He was such a good speaker, the crowds were fascinated by his knowledge and his natural comedic presentation style.

Ana happily spoke about Sumatran and Bengal tigers and their plight against extinction. She also decided that there was time at the end of her presentation for a gymnastics display. (It was beginning to become apparent that everything she did involved a gymnastics display – not particularly relevant to tiger conservation but entertaining nonetheless.)

Bindi traversed the zoo, making sure she saw all four contestants speak to the crowds. She was even able to grab her friend Josie and Josie's cousin
Andrew and show off ‘her contestants' to them.

Mimi, although initially quite nervous, enjoyed speaking about the cassowaries, as they were native to Far North Queensland, where she was from. When she spotted a group of Japanese tourists in the crowd, she repeated her speech in Japanese.

Josie giggled at Bindi's expression while the friends watched Mimi's talk. ‘You look like a proud mother, Bindi.'

Bindi smiled. ‘I feel like one too. Do you know how nervous Mimi was at the start of today? She's come such a long way!'

Bindi, Josie and Andrew rushed to see the tail end of Jason's talk over at the reptile house. Jason was having a ball, his audience entranced.

‘So it was pitch black, Dad and I were in the
tent, Dad was snoring like a steam train, when I sensed a change in the air around us. I have this sixth sense when it comes to wildlife, you see, and I could tell, in between Dad's snores, that a reptile had entered the tent. I knew that in the area we were camping, a few hundred kilometres north of Townsville, every venomous snake you could imagine was within reach – take a look at some of the beauties that are here around us. Does anyone want to take a guess at which snake came to pay us a bedtime visit?'

A young boy in the crowd pointed to the fierce snake with big eyes. ‘Was it this one?'

Jason dropped his voice to a dramatic whisper. ‘Oh, mate, I would've woken my dad up quick smart if it'd been a fierce snake. Did you know that the fierce snake produces, drop for drop, the most toxic
venom of any snake in the world? One bite possesses enough punch to drop 100 fully grown men.'

The young boy looked up at his dad, scared and excited all at once.

Andrew turned to Josie and Bindi, impressed. ‘That guy knows how to tell a yarn, doesn't he?' he said.

Bindi laughed. ‘You bet he does. Although I'm guessing the crowds may know a lot more about Jason than they do about our reptiles by the end of it.'

A few members of the crowd burst into spontaneous applause as Jason revealed his visitor was, in fact, a taipan!

Entertainment factor high, education factor, well, fair to middling!

THE DAY'S ACTIVITIES WERE
drawing to a close. The last challenge was the one Bindi was most looking forward to. Once everyone was ready to go, the group headed out 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 the
hospital – 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.

‘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 hope
so, 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.'

‘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.

‘Why are there so many koalas here?' Jason
asked, 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.'

‘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 a
serious 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 wing,' whispered Bindi. ‘Dr Dianne operated on him yesterday.' She carefully lifted a small corner
of the cloth so Mimi and Declan could take a quick look.

‘I had no idea the hospital looked after such a big range of creatures,' said Declan.

‘It was my dad's wish that any animal that was brought into the hospital needing help, big or small, would be treated with the same respect and care as any other creature,' said Bindi solemnly.

Jason came up to the small group. ‘And that's why your dad was totally awesome,' he said.

Bindi smiled. ‘It's true. He was totally awesome!'

Once the group had finished the tour they were each given surgical gloves and masks and assisted Dr Dianne on an operation. The patient was a large feisty pelican nicknamed
Chopper. He had a fishing hook caught in his bill that was making him very unhappy. All four contestants were thrilled to be able to help out, and humbled by the work the vet and her staff and volunteers did.

Ginny filmed the entire procedure. All four kids worked together beautifully as a team, and handed Dr Dianne the instruments she asked for, checked to see that Chopper remained breathing throughout the operation and carefully helped move the patient so the vet had better access to the fish hook. It was really something to watch, and so different from the calamity and mayhem of earlier.

The camerawoman thought back to the start of the day, and how much these kids had achieved. Editing all of the day's footage would be a large
job. She felt the team had captured so many special moments throughout that they probably had enough for five shows, not just the one-hour special that had been agreed on.

Terri and Robert sneaked in to watch the contestants help the vet with her operation. Bindi gave them both a big hug. She'd done it. It had been a perfect day and she was so proud of everyone involved!

THREE WEEKS LATER

‘Shhh, shhh, it's about to start,' said Mimi quietly.

No-one heard her and the room remained full of chattering people.

Ana stood up and looked around the room. ‘Everyone BE QUIET!' she yelled, and the room was immediately silent. She sat down again and stared at the large TV screen that had been set up in the conference room at the back of the Crocoseum.

Declan nudged Jason. ‘Hey Jas, hand me the popcorn, mate.'

Jason's eyes were glued to the TV as the opening credits showed each of the four contestants in a quick montage over the opening music. ‘Hey, did you see me? There I was!' His hand sought out the bowl and passed it to his friend without his eyes leaving the screen.

Declan laughed. ‘Thanks.' He was less interested in seeing himself on the big screen. He was pleased that the Aurora Network had organised this
advance screening so he'd get a chance to see Bindi and his fellow contestants again – especially Mimi. Although it was only one day, he felt like he'd spent months with these people. They'd emailed and messaged each other almost every day since the games, and he was pretty sure they would all continue to be good friends for many years to come.

Bindi was so pleased to be here, watching the end result with her friends and family. She looked over and gave a wave to Josie and her cousin. They'd jumped at the chance to attend the screening, and Andrew had already mentioned he was interested in entering next year's competition.

Even Stan the director was here with Ginny. He'd survived the concussion and twisted ankle,
just as Ginny had foretold, and had helped out in the editing suite, where no further injuries took place. (‘It was a miracle,' according to Ginny.) Stan knew after viewing the raw footage that they had a hit on their hands.

The four contestants laughed and joked with each other as they watched themselves compete on the show. The winner of the most points had been Jason, but it hadn't really mattered to any of them by the end of the day.

There were hilarious facial expressions that Ginny had caught when no-one was expecting the cameras to be on them. Mimi's expression in the lemur enclosure looked exactly like Mandabe the ringtail's a second later, which caused her to spit out her soft drink with laughter. Ana's face when she smelled the camels was
uncannily like the camel's face when Ana later complained about how uncomfortable she was riding the poor creature.

But like the real event, the kids were especially moved by the footage in the wildlife hospital at the end. They were thrilled to have found out that the pelican they'd helped operate on had been released back to his coastal home, and the tiny little baby joey in the humidicrib had been fostered out with a wildlife carer who would look after him until he was big enough to be released.

Bindi finished the show with a piece to camera. ‘So now it's up to you, the audience, to decide the overall winner of the Wildlife Games. As you can see, it's not just about who can run the fastest or who is the most knowledgeable. These four fantastic contestants – all complete winners in my
book – are young people who have already helped to raise awareness for wildlife around the world, and will continue to do so.

‘Today they've shown their commitment to the cause, and when you vote on which contestant you'd like to see win the Wildlife Games gold medal for 2012, take a moment to consider your own contribution to wildlife and conservation efforts in this country and around the world. Our animals need you. We want everyone on earth to be winners of the Wildlife Games.'

The room burst into a round of applause as the end credits scrolled.

Robert disappeared out of the room and returned a moment later with Archie the brolga close behind. Bindi gave her brother a quizzical look as Archie strutted around, looking right at
home.

Robert shrugged. ‘I knew Archie would want to be part of the celebration.'

The head of the Aurora Network, Mr Harris, stood up at the front of the stage. As soon as Archie saw the attention focused in one direction, he knew where he was headed.

Mr Harris cleared his throat. ‘Well, everyone, a truly fantastic –
Squawk! –
effort!' Mr Harris frowned at Archie, unused to being heckled by a brolga during a speech.

Archie frowned back.

Mr Harris chose to continue. ‘I know the show is going to –
Squawk!
– rate its socks off, and –
Squawk!
– raise a heck of a lot of money for the wildlife hospital!'

Squawk
!

Bindi and the contestants were trying hard not to laugh at Archie's antics. ‘He's a bird that always wants the last word. I respect that,' said Anastasia to her new friends with a giggle.

Squawk!