Save the bilby's this Easter weekend!
- Queenslanders are being urged play their part in protecting the iconic but endangered greater bilby this Easter.
- Twenty cents from the sale of the Darrell Lea Chocolate Bilby, available at Woolworths, is donated to the Save the Bilby Fund to support research and conservation efforts.
- The Miles Government is partnering with the Save the Bilby Fund on a new research project aimed at helping the species bounce back.
Queenslanders are once again being urged to support the protection and conservation of an iconic but endangered species when enjoying a chocolate treat this Easter.
Twenty cents from the sale of each Darrell Lea Chocolate Bilby, which are available at Woolworths, is donated to the Save the Bilby Fund to support research and conservation efforts for the greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis).
The greater bilby once ranged over most of mainland Australia. However, introduced predators such as feral cats, red foxes and wild dogs resulted in a significant decline of the species.
Today, the greater bilby is found in several locations in western Queensland, with the largest remaining population in an area west of the Diamantina River, in Astrebla Downs National Park, Diamantina National Park and some pastoral properties.
In 2019, the greater bilby was reintroduced to a 2500-hectare predator-free enclosure on Currawinya National Park near the Queensland-New South Wales border.
The Miles Labor Government, through the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, continues to play its part in protecting the endangered species.
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For the past 25 years, DESI has been working in collaboration with the Save the Bilby Fund to recover bilby populations in Queensland. One of the aims of the collaboration is to understand and monitor bilby populations and their predators while protecting their habitat.
It is currently partnering with the Save the Bilby Fund on a new research project that is tracking the state’s endangered bilby population in a bid to help the species bounce back.
The Save the Bilby Fund will collect data on the density of wild bilbies and key threats to their population such as cats, red foxes and wild dogs at several South West Queensland pastoral stations and at Currawinya National Park.
This will be done partly through the use of 105 field cameras set up across QLD.
An artificial intelligence program called ‘eVorta’ is assisting the project by automatically identifying images that have bilbies, and those of the introduced predators, feral cats, red foxes and wild dogs, which are the main threats to bilbies.
The project is partially funded through an almost $150,000 Threatened Species Research Grant from DESI.
A recent survey undertaken by QPWS staff indicates the bilby population in the wild at Astrebla Downs National Park has declined since the boom numbers seen in 2021.
This change is thought to be part of their normal boom-bust cycle in response to changing environmental conditions and the risk of predation to remaining bilbies.
QPWS undertakes pest management control at least four times a year to reduce the impact of feral cat and wild dog predation on bilbies. This can increase to two trips a month if considered necessary.
