World Environment Day - Together we have made great things happen!
As we celebrate World Environment Day on June 4th we want to thank all of our customers for their continued support in purchasing our Australian Animal Toys. Through sales of these toys, we have helped financially support the Rewilding of the the Red Centre with Bilbies and Bettongs with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.
Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s (AWC) hardworking field team have reintroduced Bilbies and Burrowing Bettongs to Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary on Ngalia-Warlpiri and Luritja Country. These reintroductions are significant: the Burrowing Bettong became extinct in the Northern Territory by the 1960s and the Bilby – once one of the most abundant and widely distributed of Central Australia’s mammals – now occupies less the 20% of its former range.
The week of reintroductions kicked off on 25 May, when Taronga Conservation Society Australia carefully checked 32 Bilbies – bred at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo – into a charter flight to Central Australia.
The Bilbies were welcomed to the sanctuary by AWC’s field team and 40 excited students from the local Nyirrpi School who joined AWC for the species’ homecoming. While the Bilbies underwent health checks and tagging, the students showcased their artistic talents, displaying the Bilbies they had drawn in the lead up to the translocation.
While the Bilbies settled in, 65 Burrowing Bettongs were preparing for their own historic reintroduction to Newhaven where they have been absent since the mid-20th century.
Forty bettongs were translocated from AWC’s Scotia (NSW) and Yookamurra (SA) wildlife sanctuaries on 27 May and another 25 from Matuwa and Kurrara Kurrara Indigenous Protected Area, located on Martu Country in the northern Goldfields region of Western Australia.
The small and stocky macropods received health checks on arrival and were successfully released after dark. Representatives from Tarlka Matuwa Piarku Aboriginal Corporation joined AWC for the significant occasion and said it was a proud moment to share these special animals from Matuwa and Kurrara Kurrara. Read more about the translocation, here.
The outstanding work the Australian Wildlife Conservancy are carrying out to protect our endangered native animals is something we are proud to support and through your orders for our products we have all played a part in helping to make great things happen.
Happy World Environment Day!