Have any of you recently read, if you get it, the sunday mail? Because if you have than you would have noticed that there was an article on a project in Qld for a property development which has set off the argument about getting koalas on the endangered list. On the one side you’ve got the property developers wanting to build housing projects and keep people in jobs, and on the other side you’ve got conservation groups who want to keep the koalas who might be affected by the development.

You can read the article online here. (Opens as pdf)

So now post your comments and let me know what you think about koalas being put on the endangered list!

I think it would alert people that one of our Australian native animals is dying out!

Also I think that if you feel passionate about this situation write to,

The Director
Coastal Assessments
Department of Planning
GPO Box 39
Sydney NSW 2001
(02)92-285-811
information@planning.nsw.gov.au

The General Manager
cc The Councillors
PO Box 816
Muwillumbah NSW 2484
email tsc@tweed.nsw.gov.au
(02)66-702-400.

Or your local member!

Thanks for reading!

Ceilidh.

During the Easter school holidays I travelled to Sydney and visited Taronga Zoo and spoke to their devil keeper there about their Devil breeding program for the insurance population. I saw their four female devils (just one year old) and they have another six devils for their breeding program. A problem with captive breeding is the same lack of genetic diversity can occur if the devils in the zoo keep mating, so zoos like Taronga have programs where they send devils out to other captive breeding sites to mix up the genes!

The keeper there was also excited about a new blood test that scientists at the University of Tasmania have developed which can detect whether a devil has DFTD before it shows the signs. This means that insurance populations in captive breeding programs can be protected from the disease if an introduced devil has it.

You can read more about the story here.

Bye!

Ceilidh

We have some not very good news…

Cedric the Tasmanian Devil from the west coast who was injected with live and killed cancer cells earlier this year, who up to now has not shown any signs of developing the disease (and so scientists thought he may have been immune to it) is now showing signs of being sick.

Read about it here.

Please if you can help by making a donation to the research that would be really awesome! Remember, you can do so at my donations page here.

Ceilidh