It will have been a long time since anyone has seen a numbat around Wray Avenue – if anyone ever has!
Your more likely to see a fox these days. Seriously, I saw one trotting down the middle of the avenue about 3 years ago. Nobody believed me until reports in the Herald a year or so ago about backyard chooks being outfoxed in Whitegum Valley.
Foxes are one of the chief reasons numbats are so endangered. The little marsupial – Western Australia’s faunal emblem – used to range as far east as New South Wales. Now they’re found only in the Dryandra Woodland and a few, small pockets of forest in the South West (sadly threatened by the state government’s draft forest management policy).
So there’s something kind of funny that another British import is working so hard to save this species rom extinction. Lisa Hill, a English-born veterinary nurse, has a passion for these creatures that few born-and-bred sandgropers have for this little creature.
On Wednesday of this week, Lisa organised a viewing at Replants of a unique documentary made by Dr Tony Friend in 1996. There’s a clip you can watch here.
About 30 people came down to watch it and be enchanted by the antics of the little marsupial, one of Australia’s most endangered species.
Lisa has also coordinated a fundraising music event at North Fremantle Bowls Club next Sunday, 2 December, to raise money for the campaign to save numbat. The Facebook event, including details, is here.
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