Injured and sick Dunedin wildlife will now travel to and from hospital in an ambulance.
Port Otago has supplied the Wildlife Hospital Dunedin with a new electric Nissan e-NV 200 van as a wildlife ambulance.
Hospital manager Jordana Whyte said staff had previously used their personal vehicles for animal transport and hospital-related activity.
‘‘We will use the van to transport our patched-up patients back to freedom in their native habitats. On occasion we also need to treat patients out in the field, such as sea lions ... having a van is useful to haul all of the necessary field equipment.’’
‘‘We always keep radios off and any talking to a minimum when we’re transporting animals, so it’s great to have the vehicle itself quiet, too.’’
Since the hospital opened two years ago, Port Otago had committed $15,000 annually towards a vet nurse’s salary.
Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said that it
was clear the hospital’s success meant operations were under pressure.
‘‘We wanted to do more — something that would substantively help the hospital and its hard-working team.
‘‘As it happened, we were beginning to upgrade our fleet of light vehicles to electric and, after speaking with the hospital team, a dedicated ambulance seemed a perfect fit.’’
Port Otago would cover all of the van’s associated costs, leaving hospital funding available for its core activity: treating and caring for wildlife.
