Easter Bilbies not Bunnies!

A little environmental plea for a little Aussie. Please buy Bilbies not Bunnies this Easter.

Bilbies are Australian Native desert-dwelling marsupial omnivores; they are closely related to the bandicoots. Before European colonisation of Australia there were two species. One became extinct in the 1950s, the other survives but is endangered.

Bilbies have become endangered because of habitat loss and change as well as the competition between them and other animals. There is a national recovery plan being developed to save these animals, the program includes breeding in captivity, monitoring populations, and reestablishing bilbies where they have once lived. There have been reasonably successful moves to popularise the bilby as a native alternative to the Easter Bunny by selling chocolate Easter Bilbies (sometimes with a portion of the profits going to Bilby protection and research). Reintroduction efforts have also begun, with a successful reintroduction into the Arid Recovery Reserve in South Australia in 2000, and plans underway for a reintroduction into Currawinya National Park in Queensland, with a recent success with 6 bilbies released into the feral-free sanctuary in early February 2006.