Everbridge helping WIRES save Australian wildlife

Critical event management and national public warning software provider Everbridge is marking its third year providing donated support for Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organisation, WIRES.

The Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service is a non-profit that has been providing rescue and rehabilitation for sick, injured and orphaned native animals for over 35 years.

Everbridge provides its xMatters digital service availability solution to WIRES to help the organisation’s 5200 volunteers across four states to communicate and coordinate wildlife rescues.

WIRES Emergency Response Manager Lucy Clark said the organisation made extensive use of the platform during the recent severe flooding across Queensland and New South Wales.

“In March alone, WIRES received around 10,000 rescue calls. During this period, Everbridge proved to be invaluable yet again, providing us with the ability to get notifications out to volunteers in affected areas in a timely and efficient manner,” she said.

“We had hundreds of volunteers and key staff in these areas, many of whom were carrying out search and rescue. We were able to quickly create new communications groups to target for rescue notifications, allowing us to reach our primary response teams, maintain regular contact with them, and allocate urgent resources to the flood zones.”

Utilising the platform, volunteers were able to rescue hundreds of animals, including orphaned joeys, wombats and bandicoots, echidnas, and many waterlogged birds, Clark said.

“We believe that with our coordinated emergency response efforts and our sophisticated Everbridge software, we provided the best possible outcomes for our precious wildlife,” she said.

Everbridge is now working with WIRES to incorporate other animal rescue organisations into the Everbridge–WIRES platform, allowing WIRES to instantly broadcast notifications to appropriately trained volunteers regardless of the organisation they are from.

Everbridge also powers Australia’s national emergency alert system. Globally, local, national and state governments use Everbridge Public Safety solutions for a combined reach of over 2 billion residents and visitors in more than 200 countries and territories.

Image credit: iStock.com/bennymarty