4 results for tag: Captive Breeding
Keep an eye on this guy
Sophie Aubrey Herald Sun. April 05, 2013. IT might be our state faunal emblem, but the Leadbeater’s possum is battling for survival. Once thought to be extinct, the possum was rediscovered in 1961. But the Black Saturday bushfires took their toll, destroying almost half the possums’ habitat and culling the population from 2500 to less than 1000. To give a voice to these palm-sized possums, this week has been declared Leadbeater’s Awareness Week. Healesville Sanctuary keeper Paula Watson said it was about getting Victorians to love their local species. ‘‘They’re sweet, gentle little creatures,’’ Ms Watson said. ‘‘A lot of ...
Saving the species: this tiny two-year-old is the right possum for the job
Saving the species: this tiny two-year-old is the right possum for the job
May 22, 2012 Bridie Smith http://www.smh.com.au/victoria/saving-the-species-this-tiny-twoyearold-is-the-right-possum-for-the-job-20120521-1z1d1.html ONE of the country's rarest mammals and Victoria's faunal emblem will be the subject of a captive breeding program - the first major breeding and release program for Leadbeater's possums - as scientists intervene to build up the wild population and establish an insurance population in captivity. The precarious state of the endangered possum - numbering less than 2000 in the wild - prompted Zoos Victoria to embark on the ...
Scientists find a female Leadbeater possum for first captive breeding program
By Greg Muller, Wednesday, 23 May 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/content/2012/s3509241.htm
Captive breeding program for endangered Leadbeater’s possum
Dr Dan Harley talks to Ali Moore about Healesville Sanctuary's Leadbeater's possum breeding program http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2012/05/22/3508428.htm Dr Dan Harley has been working with the Leadbeater's Possum for more than 20 years. "They're in a lot of trouble at the moment and we're kind of really at crunch time in terms of saving this species," he says. They weigh less than an apple, they fit inside a coffee cup, but their baseball bat shaped tail is the Leadbeater's possum's most distinctive feature. "When they're running around at night it's held erect... when they feed it vibrates," says Dr Harley. The Healesville Sanctuary's ...