On National Threatened Species Day our plants and animals are relying on us now more than ever, as human impacts on the environment are prompting changes never before experienced. Many of our unique species are in a life and death struggle for survival.
“The rate of change is not giving some of our species a chance to adapt, so they need our assistance to ensure they are around for our grandchildren to meet.” said Mrs Leonie Gale, CEO for the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife. “We know from experience, that if we act now there is hope.”
Captive breeding and subsequent re-introduction programs of threatened species has proven to be a very successful tool for species conservation. When a population of a species drops to very low numbers in the wild, it is certain to become extinct unless we intervene. Captive breeding programs provide species in dire trouble with animals to supplement wild populations until research can inform actions to keep them safe. The programs are "insurance policies" for the survival of many species and also aim to improve the genetic makeup of isolated populations.
“The Foundation supports captive breeding programs and is currently funding captive breeding programs for the Corroboree Frog, Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby and native mice.” explained Mrs Gale. “Critics often point out the need to conserve and restore habitat, focus on past failures, decry the cost and argue that we need to rescue species before they are on the brink of extinction.”
“Past captive breeding programs the Foundation has supported prove that the programs are successful if enough resources are allocated to the programs.” Ms Gale said. “Today the recovery of the Lord Howe Island Woodhen is one of the Foundation’s proudest success stories. The population recovered from just 33 individuals to now a thriving population of over 250. Other successful captive breeding programs the Foundation has supported include the Lord Howe Island Phasmid and the Mallee Fowl where a stable population is now established in Yathong Nature Reserve”
The Foundation has now partnered up with Australian Geographic and Paddy Pallin stores to embark on a mission to help save Australia’s only exclusively alpine marsupial, the Mountain Pygmy-possum. The possum’s dilemma is that it only occurs above the winter snowline in areas of southern New South Wales and north-eastern Victoria and that snowline is rapidly receding with global warming. Other current threats including predation and habitat disturbance and loss will increase with this loss of snow cover.
A Mountain Pygmy-possum captive breeding program will provide an insurance population for re-introduction of possums to currently occupied sites in case of further, catastrophic decline. The program will provide a population of animals to experimentally introduce into areas of alpine habitat that are currently unoccupied and the possibility of adaptation to warmer climates will be explored.
The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife is calling on all Australians to help the plight of the Mountain Pygmy-possum. We must act now to guarantee this cute possum survives for future generations. It would be a tragedy if we lost the Mountain Pygmy-possum, with a fossil record going back thousands of years, and after only 40 years of recognising its existence. National Threatened Species Day encourages the conservation of Australia’s unique threatened plants and animals. Australia is home to over a million truly unique species with most found nowhere else in the world.
Australia’s plants and animals depend on the soils, water, climate and landscapes they have evolved with over millions of years. Human activities and natural events such as fire, drought and flood are changing Australia’s environment, reducing diversity and threatening the survival of many native species now in urgent need of our help.
