Handrearing of developing macropods & macropod husbandry. L. A. Staker * Macropod husbandry specialist Australia
Macropods are marsupials belonging to the family Macropodidae, which includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, pademelons, bettongs and several lesser-known species. Kangaroos, and their cousins the wallabies, are amongst the most recognisable and uniquely identifiable animals associated with Australia . Lynda Staker is one of Australia 's foremost speakers on the hand-raising and husbandry of this family of animals. With over 20 years of personal experience in the raising of macropods, Lynda has developed a knowledge-base that is unsurpassed. Lynda shares this knowledge with other carers through her publications;
Lynda also trains groups of volunteers in the appropriate care of macropods and is generally available to carers to answer specific questions/address particular problems. Lynda has attended and presented at numerous international conferences, such as this one, as well as providing hands-on tutoring and mentoring to vets in zoos and nature-parks world-wide. At this conference, Lynda will be presenting on the topic of Hand-rearing of developing macropods & macropod husbandry. In doing so she will share practical knowledge on all aspects of caring for young macropods (joeys). From the simple act of aging a joey, to the feeding regimes and the safe environments in which joeys are to be kept during their all important initial development stages. Lynda will also discuss the important factors to be considered as a young joey leaves the pouch for the first time, including the dietary changes and the differences in housing requirements. Lynda will also address the issues and pitfalls associated with captive care of Macropods. Macropods are often difficult to raise and sustain in a non-native environment such as a zoo or wildlife park. Indeed some species can suffer horrific deaths caused by minimal amounts of stress that would leave other species largely unaffected. Topics will include:
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