Call of the wild

Dr Lisa Argilla, of the Wildlife Hospital Dunedin (right), holds open the mouth of an injured yellow-eyed penguin so vet nurse Angelina Martelli can give it fluids. PHOTO: CHRISTINE O'CONNOR

She was born in South Africa and is the only trained wildlife veterinary doctor working in the South Island.

Dr Lisa Argilla tells Bruce Munro what drives her, what angers her and why the new Wildlife Hospital is so important.

Heat and wind have embraced the Wildlife Hospital Dunedin on its first day, mirroring the first six hours of the fledgling facility's operation.

Everything has begun with an unexpected flurry.

"They haven't even waited for us to get properly set up,'' Dr Lisa Argilla says.

Sniper is hoihos' best friend

Now, mid-afternoon, she has already admitted two injured hoiho, yellow-eyed penguins, that have been brought up to Dunedin from the Catlins and has begun preparing for an unwell takahe being brought from Te Anau for treatment.

The doors of the facility, housed in Otago Polytechnic's weatherboard Vet Nursing School at the far end of Albany St, are flung open to the warm breeze.

Argilla sits in a teal-coloured surgeon's cotton shirt, black hair tied loosely behind her head, face red in the uncharacteristic warmth.

"I'm a bit of a weird South African,'' she admits. "I actually hate the heat.''

Climate change excluded, Dunedin should suit her to the ground. And not just because of the city's interminable winter. Argilla has a passion for wildlife, especially birds.

"I've known I was going to be a veterinarian since I was a kid growing up in Durban,'' she says.

"I remember driving my parents crazy with always rescuing animals in need and birds falling out of nests - which isn't really rescuing them, it's more like kidnapping, but as a kid you don't know any better.''

The understanding, expertise and passion all grew with the years.

Last year, for example, during the second annual pop-up wildlife hospital in Dunedin, a hoiho was brought in with what was probably a baracouta bite. The sharp-toothed fish had torn through the tendon at the back of the penguin's heel.

"It was a massive open wound. Joint exposed, tendons and blood vessels flapping around,'' Argilla says with feeling.

"Probably, the worst injury you can see in an animal, let alone an animal that you want to get back to the wild ... It was a horrible, horrible injury.''

Amputation was not an option if the bird was to fend for itself. It was either repair or put down. Argilla was reluctant to euthanise.

"His personality indicated to me that he would cope with a lot. He was an outgoing bird and quite chilled around people.''

This type of injury had been seen several times in the past but never successfully treated by Argilla or other colleagues elsewhere in New Zealand.

So, she started researching human medical literature, hoping to find parallels in surgical techniques for wrist wounds.

"I figured, people sever tendons in their wrists, and your wrists have to be really dexterous, so surgeons have to repair hands to a really high standard.''

Tips gleaned gave her the confidence to attempt an operation. Despite a hiccup, it seemed to work. But the real proof would be in the rehabilitation. Could the penguin regain full use of its foot? A lot of time and effort was invested but progress was slow.

After several months, Argilla wondered whether it was time to "call it quits''. Instead, the decision was made to risk releasing the penguin to complete its physiotherapy in the wild.

"It was terrifying to make the decision. Then it was a waiting, hoping game.''

In November, a Department of Conservation (Doc) fieldworker monitoring hoiho in the wild, scanned a bird's microchip and discovered it was the one Argilla had operated on.

"She said he moved normally ... so, the risk paid off,'' Argilla says with a broad smile.

"There was a lot of jumping around. And relief too. Because the wild is a horrible place and so you wonder sometimes whether you are just releasing a bird to go die.

"Now we have the knowledge that ocean physiotherapy is really effective.''

As far as the vet knows, it is the first successful operation for that type of tendon injury on a penguin.

Happy Feet, the emperor penguin found on the Kapiti Coast. Photo: NZ Herald

The path from Durban, the South African metropolis of more than 5 million people, to being the only trained wildlife veterinary doctor working in the South Island of New Zealand has had its bumps and detours.

Too much fun was had when Argilla left home for the first time, in the mid-1990s, to go to university in Pretoria. She missed out on entry to the veterinary medicine school and had to content herself with a degree in animal and wildlife science.

Then, becoming a zoo keeper at a bird park in Durban fanned the phoenix's flames for what has become an obsession about birds (Argilla owns two parrots) and for giving veterinary medicine another shot.

First she tried applying in Australia, where the family emigrated in 2001, and then, successfully, in New Zealand, at Massey University.

"I didn't know much about New Zealand. But when I researched it I thought this place is perfect, it's full of birds.''

During her medical studies, Argilla volunteered at renowned local wildlife health centre Wild Base. She then spent 14 months working in private practice in Australia, work that was valuable but which she hated.

"I didn't gel well with Australian culture.''

A chance meeting with a former Wild Base staff member led to Argilla skipping back across the ditch to take up a three-year residency there while also doing a master's degree in wildlife science, specialising in hoiho.

In 2011, she became manager of the veterinary hospital at Wellington Zoo.

Tending to scuffling chimpanzees was typical of the work there. So she was allowed to also take in any injured native wildlife brought to the zoo. Among them was Happy Feet, the discombobulated emperor penguin that became a global media star when it turned up on the Kapiti coast, 4000km from home. Happy Feet was treated by Argilla, feted by Gareth Morgan, fitted with a location device, released in subantarctic waters and ... disappeared, hopefully back to the Antarctic.

Wildlife Hospital Trust co-chairman Andy Cunningham (right), volunteer co-ordinator Lauren McIntyre and student intern Amin Osama (obscured) get the facility ready last week. PHOTO: CHRISTINE O'CONNOR

Talk about the need for a wildlife hospital in Dunedin began about five years ago.

Proof of its value came from the pop-up penguin hospitals operated by Argilla, with support from Otago Polytechnic, in 2016 and 2017.

Treating penguins in Dunedin improved their survival rate by a third, compared with flying them north for treatment.

"By the time they got to Wellington, two days might have passed. That was long enough for osteomyelitis, a bone infection, to set into their wounds causing injuries, which often I had to euthanise birds for.

"It was frustrating because I knew, gosh, if I'd seen this bird even 24 hours earlier I probably could have saved it.''

When the survival or death of one bird is important for the whole species' survival, a 33% improvement means a lot.

"In 2016, we saw we weren't getting the osteomyelitis. Then we saw it again last year. It was the most exciting graph I've ever seen.''

New Zealand has the unenviable distinction of having some of the most endangered species on the planet.

Several varieties of at-risk New Zealand animals, including Otago skink, rowi kiwi and Fiordland crested penguins, will be treated at the Wildlife Hospital.

"Often, in New Zealand, every animal counts,'' Argilla says.

"Takahe, for example, there are 300 birds. That's hardly any birds left. Yellow-eyed penguin, about 250 breedng pairs on the mainland. So, the wildlife hospital could potentially play a role in helping prevent extinction.''

Some people's lack of concern for the plight of endangered wildlife angers Argilla.

Late last year, Alexander Pyron, who is professor of biology at George Washington University, made the controversial claim that endangered species should not be saved because extinction is part of evolution.

"The only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves, to create a stable future for human beings,'' Prof Pyron was quoted in The Washington Post.

"I definitely don't agree,'' Argilla says. "That annoys me, a lot. It's an arrogant `Homo sapiens are the most important species' view.

"I'm very much of the opinion that we can't live alone on this planet. We actually are part of the ecosystem. And, Homo sapiens are causing most of the damage to the ecosystem.

"There are a lot of wildlife workers out there who are dedicating their lives to trying to save wildlife and restore the balance.''

Prof Pyron has since said he did not quite mean what he said.

Andy Cunningham is a firm believer in what Argilla is doing. Co-chairman of the Wildlife Hospital Trust, Cunningham is the business, fundraising and marketing force behind the venture.

Not only does New Zealand wildlife urgently need a helping hand, but New Zealanders need the wildlife, he says.

"Observing wildlife is the top activity for all markets according to Tourism New Zealand,'' he says.

"It is visitors' principle reason for coming.

"If we lose the wildlife ... they won't want to come anymore.''

Cunningham says the hospital has received tremendous help to open but is still a "shoestring operation''.

"We had to take the plunge, so we've launched in good faith, and we're going to work like demons to get it sustainable.''

He first met Argilla a year ago and was immediately impressed.

"The first time I saw Lisa, she was on her hands and knees cleaning penguin poo off the floor. I thought, I could probably work with this person.''

Possible patients

Some of the endangered native species the wildlife hospital will probably be treating.

Photo: ODT files

• Hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptesantipodes)

Unique to New Zealand, the hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin, is thought to be one of the world’s rarest penguin species.

Conservation status: Nationally endangered Population: 6000 to 7000 mature individuals in 2000. About 250 breeding pairs along the Otago and Southland coastline.

Found in: Southeast of the South Island and on Banks Peninsula, Stewart Island/Rakiura and its outliers, Codfish Island/
Whenua Hou, the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island.

Threats: Dogs, human disturbance, fisheries interactions, predation, disease, habitat loss

Photo: ODT files

• Rowi or Okarito brown kiwi (Apteryx rowi)

Rowi is the rarest of the five species of kiwi. Through predation and habitat loss, these remarkable birds have been reduced to just one natural population.

Conservation status: Nationally vulnerable

Population: About 450

Found in: Okarito forest and surrounds in South Westland, predator-free islands of Marlborough Sounds

Threats: Predation