Hey there dudes and dudets,

On the 25th of June my class hosted a movie called “FERN TREE GULLY”. We showed the movie to the preps, 2s,3s,4sand 5s.We were raising money for the Show You Care – Adopt a Square program by the Australian Rainforest Foundation.

See, if you give $1 to the program you adopt 1 square metre of rainforest. We raised $148 and adopted 148 square metres of rainforest in the Daintree. Our class got a Certificate and letter from the ARF which said:

Your donation will enable us to purchase vital land for conservation and will ensure the rainforest receives hands-on attention from local people … One of the flagship projects of the Foundation is to secure habitat for endangered species. The site you are adopting is important … as it expands a crucial wildlife corridor within the Daintree. It is also important cassowary habitat and securing this site will assist in conservation efforts for the long-term survival of this magnificent bird. The land is 8.8 hectares (21 acres) of lowland rainforest … Some plant species on the property are either listed as rare, vulnerable or even endangered.

For more information on the Show You Care – Adopt a Square program, visit the Australian Rainforest Foundation site.

If you want to save rainforest in the world generally, one easy thing you can do right NOW is change your search engine from Google to Ecosia! You can either have an add-on for your browser, or just go to the home page and make it your default search engine.

Well thats all for now.

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