Haigh’s chocolate Easter Bilby (dark chocolate) with Bilby mug on a white bench – Courtesy Nicole Kearney Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
The chocolate Easter bilby is a very Aussie approach to raising awareness about one of the country’s most endangered animals. Haigh’s Chocolates, a fourth-generation Australian-owned family firm, produces a range of these bilby products.
Chocolate bilbies are a local alternative at Easter, as Australian Geographic explains:
There are few Aussie marsupials as instantly recognisable as the bilby — or more specifically the greater bilby. It’s those ears, of course. But then the bright spark who started the push to replace the pesky introduced European rabbit with the charismatic native bilby as Australia’s Easter chocolate treat of choice may have also had something to do with it.
Macrotis lagotis, the greater bilby, is one of Australia’s iconic mammal species. It is threatened with extinction. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species classifies it as vulnerable. It resembles a mouse but is closer to the size of a rabbit. Before the European settlement, bilbies could be found in 80 percent of Australia. This has been reduced considerably. Its population is estimated to be as low as 9,000 mature animals.
Bunnies are an invasive species down under and have decimated local ecosystems since their introduction in 1859. However, they are not the only feral danger to bilbies. Cats and foxes have also had a major impact. The biblies’ habitat has been further reduced by land clearing and grazing animals such as cattle and sheep.
Feral dangers poster – Charleville Bilby Experience – Author’s photo
The bilby is primarily active at night. The Charleville Bilby Experience in rural Queensland has a nocturnal house with timing switched so the animals can be viewed during the day. It is part of the Save the Bilby Fund’s projects. It is one of several captive breeding programs using fenced, predator-free areas as a way of fostering bilby numbers by protecting them from predators.
Charleville Bilby Experience – Author’s photo
The ABC’s Back Roads program visited the centre in 2023:
Ever since the Save The Bilby fund was set up in 1999 by the late founders Peter McRae and Frank Manthey known fondly as The Bilby Brothers, their work contributed greatly to a National Recovery plan to pull bilbies back from the brink of extinction and created this breeding program a safe haven at a national park.
The Australian Wildlife Conservancy has six of these sites. The latest was established in 2022:
In 2022, a new population of Bilbies was established at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary outside of Alice Springs. Ecohealth surveys late last year indicated that the population has successfully adapted to the new environment and the first photo evidence of a juvenile was recorded on camera trap in November.
Within the next few years, AWC properties will protect an estimated 5,000+ Bilbies.
Some of its work is explained in this video:
The Wild Deserts project is located in the Australian outback in the Sturt National Park near Cameron’s Corner, where the State boundaries of New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland intersect. It is reintroducing many locally extinct mammals. ABC TV’s 7:30 reported on their efforts:
They shared more detail in their online story:
Bilbies, bandicoots, bettongs and quolls once dominated these arid plains and they are now reclaiming the area, thanks to a team of scientists trying to address Australia’s mammal extinction rate — which is the worst in the world.
The Australian government has a Recovery Plan for the Greater Bilby. It includes working with Indigenous rangers.
The National Indigenous Times reported earlier this year:
One project will support land managers undertaking feral cat control across more than 3.2 million hectares of west Queensland.
In Western Australia, the funding will support Warla-Warrarn Indigenous protected area rangers to detect populations of bilbies on Martu Country.
The second project is the Kimberley Bilby Project in North Western Australia’s Kimberley region.
Bilbies have their own national day in September. Environs Kimberley, a partner in this bilby project, was just one of many to celebrate the occasion on Instagram:
View this post on Instagram
The Happy Vale Wildlife Centre is a private trust in Queensland which also cares for bilbies shared:
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Save the Bilby Fund also sent birthday greetings:
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Conservationists are using online tools to help highlight the plight of endangered species. Australian National University ecologist Ana Gracanin has created a live stream of Greater Glider possums in a tree hollow. Ana explained the reasons for the stream:
Most Australians don’t know that the species even exists, so we are getting a world-first exclusive into the secret life of greater gliders
The tree is located in the Tallangada National Park. There is not much movement to see during daylight hours in New South Wales, as the gliders are also nocturnal.
