EUROWA partner PRO Bird delivers Basic oiled wildlife responder training in Germany

In March of 2018, PRO Bird presented a EUROWA Basic training session to two German partner organisations, continuing EUROWA’s work of improving response to oiled wildlife in Europe.

Fifteen staff and volunteers from Wildtierstation (Wildlife Rescue Centre) Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein and Wildtierhilfe Lüneburger Heide e.V. (Wildlife Rescue Centre Lüneburger Heide), as well as a representative of the Environmental Ministry of Lower Saxony, completed the Basic training course. After finishing the course attendees have the knowledge and skills to provide initial rescue and stabilisation to animals until more experienced oiled wildlife response personnel arrive on the scene.

Fifteen people completed this initial training, which was hosted by Wildtierhilfe Lüneburger Heide e.V. Sascha Regmann of PRO Bird, who translated the EUROWA training materials into German, was joined by two other PRO Bird staff members Katharina and Christian Erdmann in delivering the training. In addition to classroom sessions, trainees get practical experience with stabilisation of oiled birds and practice safe capture techniques with the aid of the famous Roboduck.

PRO Bird has provided this training four times since 2015, resulting in nearly 60 people in Germany trained to EUROWA Basic level, dramatically increasing the country’s capacity to care for oiled wildlife should a spill occur. In 2019, Project Blue Sea e.V. in North Rhine Westphalia will host the next Basic course. Then, once personnel from all seven PRO Bird partner organisations have completed the Basic course, PRO Bird intends to begin offering the EUROWA Advanced course in 2020.