Australian Bilbies population threatened by Josie Blossfeld
Summary: Australian bilbies are the sole survivor of six bandicoot species that once roamed Australia. Australia used to be home to two species of bilby, the lesser and greater species, but the greater bilby species is now extinct. Lesser bilbies are now endangered in Queensland and labeled as vulnerable to extinction nationally. Hunting by non-native feral cats and foxes is believed to be the biggest threat to the the bilby population, along with factors in the population's dramatic decline such as destruction of its habitat by farm animals and competition for food.
Analysis: This is a shame! Bilbies are a species that have lived in Australia for over two hundred years, and besides that they're extremely cute. Hopefully some sort of intervention can take place to get the bilby population increasing again before they go extinct for good!
It's really sad and even ironic that the "development" (like cities, technology, increasing populations) of humans causes the deaths of other animals and hurts the environment. I think this will be a huge problem in the future and that we need to start making some drastic changes to ensure that we don't have to live in an apocalyptic novel.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if they should have thought a bit harder about the animals in the Australian habitats before letting foreign animals live there. They should keep some of these in a controlled environment in which they can thrive, and let them loose in 10 years.
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