For Harry Kunz, the wildlife rescuer who joked he worked with animals because “humans I can’t understand anymore”, it’s been the kind of week that just might have restored some faith in his own species.
The Austrian-born Kunz has been overwhelmed by the global response to his offer to give away his north Queensland wildlife sanctuary to someone willing to carry on his legacy caring for injured and orphaned native Australian creatures.
Since first reported by Guardian Australia on Monday, Kunz’s search for a successor has been met by an avalanche of calls, emails and visits from candidates eager to take over Eagles Nest wildlife hospital.
They straddle a swag of different nationalities, ages, and commands of English, from veterinarians in Mexico to members of conservation groups closer to home.
Kunz’s inbox was flooded with 3,000 emails the first day alone after his story went viral, while some candidates arrived in person to the site, near Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands.
“The phone’s been ringing off the hook,” said Eagles Nest spokeswoman Tess Brosnan, stepping in for a “completely exhausted” Kunz, 69, who had retired to take a breather after a week of interviews with media from Melbourne to London.
Not all callers were conscious of Kunz’s eastern Australian timezone.
“We’ve found that because it’s a wildlife emergency line, we’ve been a bit concerned about missing calls so we’ve been encouraging everyone just to email us,” Brosnan said.
“However, since the Guardian story, we’ve had people just turn up and basically help us look after the animals, do all sorts of things, set things up around the place. There’s even people doing the vegie garden, it’s been great.”
A family from Western Australia on a cross-country trip in a campervan turned up to lend a hand, happening to be nearby on the Atherton Tablelands when a friend sent the Guardian story to them via Facebook.
“They’re not wanting to take over the hospital but they’ve been volunteering and their kids have been running around looking after the animals, feeding animals, cleaning out the eagles’ enclosures,” Brosnan said.
“We’ve had basically a lot of help since the article and all the right people turning up.”
Media coverage of the rare opportunity has ranged from the UK to the US and reached German, Dutch and Italian press.
Volunteers helping Kunz in his unique exit strategy were tickled by LOOK online magazine’s use of grizzly bears to depict the story of the sanctuary giveaway.
With the appeal a raging success, the difficult task for Kunz will now be selecting his potential successors from a plethora of contenders to train alongside him at the sanctuary before handing over the reins to his life’s work.
Importantly, prime candidates have already emerged.
“I think basically all the best and most altruistic animal people in the world have contacted us now,” Brosnan said.
“We’ve also had a lot of offers to help Harry in the closure of the deal and making it all happen and making sure everything meets his requirements.
“Now it’s time for Harry to recover from all the interviews and actually pick someone out. I think that will be very hard.”
