WILDLIFE WARRIORS

These selfless people are helping save creatures big and small!

- Maisy Rae

Made of ruff stuff!

On the red earth of Yuendumu, Gloria Morales is hard at work looking after a group of local camp dogs.

When the art conservator arrived in the remote NT community in 2003, Gloria, 58, saw many dogs there were facing illness and hunger and felt she had to step in.

Although much loved by their owners, inaccessibility to basic medical treatment and desexing meant that breeding numbers were out of control.

"I started feeding as many as my wallet could afford and getting some of them desexed," she says. "By 2007, I managed to get a vet to come to the community to start birth control." At one point, Gloria had 75 dogs inside her home.

Now, thanks to interstate adoptions, she looks after 33 dogs, cats, birds and the occasional lizard.

"Seeing the dogs happy and the trust that people put in me is rewarding. Now people notice small changes in their puppies and bring them in immediately for treatment."