‘I put spiders on Caitlyn Jenner’s head’: Inside I’m a Celeb set
Celebrity encounters are all part of the job for a wildlife carer on the set of I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!
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MOLLY WIDDICOMBE, 27
WILDLIFE CARER, ARUNDEL
For the past three years, I’ve taken care of the animals on UK TV series, I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! which is filmed in northern New South Wales. There’s all sorts of creepy crawly insects, lizards, snakes, spiders, rats, yabbies and pigeons, which the British are surprisingly terrified of.
We don’t interact with the celebrities that much. They’re kept separated so they have a lost sense of reality, which helps with their reactions for the show. They’re all British celebrities so I don’t know a lot of them, but last year they had (American television personality and Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete) Caitlyn Jenner on the show. I released some spiders on to her head, but she wasn’t too fazed by it.
People have mixed reactions to hearing I work on the show. Some people aren’t a huge fan of using animals for entertainment purposes but I always explain to them that we spend a lot of time making sure that everything is safe and the animals are well cared for. We follow RSPCA guidelines.
I prefer working at David Fleay Wildlife Park, Tallebudgera. It has more conservation value behind it, which is what I believe in, and there’s a greater variety of wildlife. I’ve been volunteering there for about three years and got casual employment since the beginning of the year. There’s no such thing as a typical day but generally I check on all the animals, clean enclosures, feed them and assist with any health checks required.
Really all the animals are my favourites but my top two are a bilby called Teddy and our bridled nail-tail wallaby joey, Flash. Teddy is new to the park and I like to think we’ve got a good bond. He’s a gentle soul. Flash is about six months old and I’ve helped raise him a little bit. He loves a cuddle and coming up to the keepers, because he knows we bring the food. Hopefully a few more joeys will arrive in time for the September school holidays, which is exciting because they’re not on display at any other zoo in Australia.
My goal has always been to work with animals. In grade 12 at A.B. Paterson College (in Arundel), I did reception work at my local vet clinic and decided I was more interested in wildlife than domestic animals, so chose zoo keeping. I did a Bachelor of Science, Griffith University, and Certificate III in Captive Animals, Open Colleges.
During university, I did a two-week volunteer trip to Swaziland [southern Africa] to help German researchers track leopard tortoises. It’s a poor country and only has a few game reserves, so we put up camera traps to track wildlife and give the government some idea of what animals they had around. There were lots of baboons, antelope and we saw a black mamba (very venomous snake). I’ve also been to Peru and Costa Rica, where I visited a few conservation reserves. I saw a few sloths, which was nice.
At home with Mum (Mandy, 59, community aged care worker) and Dad (Rod, 60, engineer) I have two tree frogs Gin and Tonic, my border collie kelpie cross Millie and about 25 stick insects. They reproduce through parthenogenesis, which basically means the females don’t need a male to breed and can essentially clone themselves. Everything about them is fascinating. My brother Jack, 30, works in IT and lives in Toowong in Brisbane and my twin sister Elise works for the air force, based in Canberra. She was born 10 minutes after me, and we’re very, quite different people. I’m more of a girlier girl and she’s more of a tomboy.