It’s me! I want to actually post every day now and get back into a routine! Scratch that, every time I get an update.

Anyhow, back on track. I recently went to Melbourne and went to Melbourne Zoo, yay! BUT THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY DEVILS! They’re the closest zoo to Tasmania and they don’t have any devils! I’m going to find out why and report back.

BTW: I’m looking at doing, now, most endangered species such as: blue whales and all kinds of whales, tigers, devils, bilbies, koalas, baby Harp seals, pandas and red pandas, trees and updates on the latest bush fires! BRING IT ON!

And as Kitty of 7pm Project would say:

“Look out Australia! I’m watching you.”

You can read the story here.

Read the story here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/22/2577801.htm

Please keep donating – the research is even more critical now than ever.

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

Event Details:

Date: Saturday 28th February 2009

Time: 8.30am Sharp

Where: Boheme, 368 Bridge Road, Richmond, Victoria

Price: $35 (price includes breakfast, champagne, guest speakers and good times)

The race will be taking place at 10.00am at the Richmond Recreatoin Centre, 5 minutes walk from Boheme.

For more information visit the Dash for the Devil site!

Good luck Daniel and Simon and thanks for helping!

Ceilidh

Wildlife Keeper and Tasmanian Devil expert Sarah Mulhall says ‘Tassie Devils are very difficult to breed and we are extremely happy that we’ve had two consecutive years of reproduction.’ Our two young males are progressing very well.

Wildlife Manager Matt Hingley is particularly happy that the two new babies are males, as sires are very important to the success of future breeding programs.

And guess what! A naming competition is underway and along with Sarah Mulhall, I’ll be choosing the winning entries. Two winners will be drawn and you can win an annual pass to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary! How cool is THAT!

So put your thinking caps on and get those entries in! You can send them to greenguardian@cws.org.au – winners will be notified by December 19, 2008

For more info on the competition visit the Currumbin page here.

1.  Why?

In January 2008 school holidays I saw a terrible picture of Devil Facial Tumour disease at the Devil Enclosure at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. It was just terrible and I decided to do something about it. So, with mum’s help, I did some research on the disease, what’s happening and how I could help. I then put that information into posters. I then used those posters to base my website pages on and sent this to Janice Kalyniuk at PerthWebs.com who put together the awareness site for me: Tassie Devil Cancer Awareness.

The site got loads of press coverage – which you can see at my press pages.

2.  Next Steps

Currumbin invited me back to meet the devils in February and to meet Sarah Mulhall, the Tassie Devil Keeper. That was so cool! But a little scary as you can see from the pics on my press page – Mandu was a lot noisier than I thought he’d be!

3.  Tasmania Trip

In April, mum, dad and I went to Tasmania for a week. We had a really busy time meeting with the University of Tasmania and Department of Primary Industries & Water staff as well as a really interesting meeting with research scientist Rodrigo who spent ages explaining tracking devices and all the wonderful work he and his team are involved with! I also meet with local sanctuary owners (Bonorong Wildlife Conservation Centre and Something Wild) – and met up with Nature Nic and his family which was heaps of fun!

4.  Little Devils Day

Part of my fundraising ideas included holding a free dress day at school to raise awareness and funds. This happened on 30 May and Steve Smith was kind enough to come to the school and give presentations to all the kids about devils! We raised just over $200 for the Save the Tassie Devil Project! You can hold your own Little Devils Day at your school – download the form at my website.

5.  Community Service Announcement

My next job was to put together a community service announcement for radio. This went out to a lot of community radio stations in Qld and Tasmania with quite a number of them picking it up. You can hear it here.  tassie-ad

6.  Cafe Press Store

Another fundraising idea was to open a Cafe Press Store. I designed the merchandise at the store. If you’re looking for gifts that give twice, head to the Tassie Devil Diner and choose from the large range there! 100% of the proceeds goes to saving the devils.

7.  Totally Wild

In July Totally Wild did a segment on what I was doing to try and help raise awareness. I really thank them for taking the time to do that!

Total funds raised to date exceed $2,000! I’m hoping to get my new school – and the rest of the schools in our district – involved in Little Devils Day. I’m also working with my Guide Unit to try and raise awareness!