Meet Izzy

Izzy is the mastermind behind the chaos that is Wandering Wildlife, donating her home, time, and majority of her life to the care and keeping of everything at HQ! Taking being a 'reptile lover' to the extreme, Izzy boasts an impressive resume of both volunteer and paid work in the industry, as well as holding a Certificate 3 in Wildlife and Exhibited Animal Care. There's no doubt that pets are her passion, and that is demonstrated vibrantly through her work and the way she speaks about everything animal.

If she's not at HQ elbow deep in substrate and a healthy amount of snake poo, you can find her out in the scrub contributing to wildlife studies, trekking through the bush with her puppy sidekick Toad, and enjoying everything that this amazing land has to offer.

Our Story

Wandering Wildlife as you see us today paints a picture of education, outreach, and public event enhancement. What you may not know, is that that we've been operating as a reptile rescue a lot longer than we've had this fancy website or public display set ups- let us tell you all about it!

When founder Izzy Hill was just a teenager, she had noticed a huge disconnect in the way we speak about our reptiles, versus the way we actually treated them. Having witnessed abuse in the industry in all forms, she began rescuing reptiles from all different backgrounds, operating out of her family home. When reptiles began to outnumber human inhabitants, she knew it was time for a change!

Packing up her current crew, she moved to new digs where she could focus on better set ups, including dedicated reptile rooms, quarantine set ups and outdoor enclosures to facilitate best practice care and keeping. It was around this time that she picked up a particularly chatty addition to the collection- Makayla!

The connection was instant and electric, and since then Makayla has played a constant role in the operation- whether its cleaning enclosures, helping to organise business and rescue ventures from her base in North Queensland, or hitting the road to collect critters of all shapes and sizes, there was rarely ever one without the other.

Over the years Wandering Wildlife has expanded far beyond Izzy's initial goal of helping where she can- now operating out of a larger home with dedicated hospital, quarantine and nursery rooms.

Moving into public displays and education in 2023 has helped grow the rescue and our capacity to care in ways we never anticipated, and the support, donations, and volunteers gained through outreach have left the heart of HQ feeling grateful beyond measure.

And that, friends, brings us to 2025. Our core values of rescue, education, and outreach still ring true, and we are more excited than ever to be delivering first class second chances to the critters that deserve them most- and with that, we will catch you at a market or event very soon!

Meet the Team

Wandering Wildlife is dependant on our staff to run smoothly, and our team combines a huge range of experience that allows us to cater to all bookings in a professional and experience-focused manner.

Explore the page below to meet the less-than-scaly animals that help us do what we do best!

Manager

Makayla

Makayla's passion lies on the wild side- having spent her adult life caring for wildlife, relocating snakes and fighting for the rights of all our animal friends in North Queensland. A true jack of all trades, she handles more than most behind the scenes at HQ and Displays. Wherever Izzy is, Makayla's not far behind- whether they're catching goannas or just cleaning enclosures, there's no such thing as a "one person job" when she's in town! Education and advocacy make up a huge part of her connection to country and the creatures that call it home, and she is always ready to chat about the animals from her home in the northern section of the country.

Wildlife Presenter

Yeliena

Yeliena is a powerhouse here at Wandering HQ. Forensic Pathologist by day, and professional bearded dragon carer by night, she plays a vital role in the success of our rescue program. With 25+ years experience in the medical field, she is our first point of call when assessing rescues outside of vet hours. She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to anything injury assessment and things that don't look "quite right" until we can secure vet appointments. While this doesn't replace veterinary care for our critters, her sharp eye often picks up on things we miss, and has played a big role in animals receiving life saving care in the nick of time.

Wildlife Presenter

Ryan

Ryan is one of the Wildlife Presenters working with Wandering Wildlife! Before he was a demonstrator, he lurked behind the scenes for his work experience placement and loved it so much he's decided to stick around for the real fun stuff!

Ryan has loved reptiles his whole life, but we'd be lying if we didn’t say that varanids have stolen his heart. Catch him at a display and he will talk your ear off about all things Wandering Wildlife, pygmy monitors and Black Headed Pythons!

Wildlife Presenter

Jayden

Jayden has a huge passion for herpetology, as well as dingo behaviour and Ecology. She's currently a university student, and have been involved with wildlife for a few years now, though is relatively new to the Wandering Wildlife crew. She'd one day love to assist Veterinary clinics in the appropriate approach to wildlife, especially reptiles, that are handed in to their care, but for the mean time she is happy educating the public on anything and everything scaley we have on display!

Wildlife Presenter

Jess

Jess is a snake catcher & wildlife rescuer with a passion for reptiles & bats. She's kept reptiles since a very young age, and is always looking to broaden her knowledge on all aspects of behaviour & husbandry. Her specialties include bringing home unexpected animals to her unsuspecting husband and flipping rocks that are slightly too heavy for her to handle.

HQ Volunteers

Wandering Wildlife Volunteers

Its no secret that we couldn't do what we do without the help of various dedicated volunteers. These may be uni students who require work experience hours, or members of the reptile community who kindly volunteer their time to help things run smoothly back at HQ. These volunteers are always changing, but that doesn't mean that their work doesn't deserve a special shout out!

Demonstration Volunteers

Templestowe College Animals Program Participants

Occasionally, we will have students from Templestowe College kindly volunteer their time to help us out at demonstrations. The students are apart of the schools Animals Program, which boasts a wide variety of animals that the kids work tirelessly to maintain and learn all about. These youngsters show incredible promise in the industry, and are an integral part of our volunteer team.

Contact

If you're looking to offer up some free time to help out here at Wandering Wildlife, feel free to reach out via email, text or our social media links.

We take volunteers from all different backgrounds, whether you'd like to help out with our displays at markets and community events, or clean enclosures and cuddle snakes at HQ with the rescues and display animals; we are always appreciative of extra hands!

wanderingwildlifedisplays@gmail.com

0408070956