CONSERVATION NEWS

2024-01-02 -

In the 12 months to November 2023, with the generous support of our readers, we donated more than $67,203 to native species at risk. Among these was the mountain pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus). This tiny marsupial was the subject of a major milestone fundraising effort for our 100th issue of AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC in October 2010. Those funds went to groundbreaking research led by Professor Mike Archer from the University of New South Wales.

Mike’s a palaeontologist with extensive knowledge of Australia’s fossil records from sites such as Riversleigh in Queensland, and he knew the pygmypossum was present at lower altitudes in the distant past. This offered hope that the species could be reintroduced into similar environments and survive the ravages of climate change. Mike established a research facility and breeding program at Secret Creek near Lithgow in NSW. The AGS raised $130,000 in 2010 and these funds continue to bear fruit today. “We have three research students already focused on aspects of the Burramys Project and the colony now established, and successfully churning out new young in the Breeding Facility – which is a major indication of the growing success of the whole program,” says Mike.

“The vital help from the Society in the lead-up to this success through public appeals for donations using AG and the Society’s ongoing help and support has been enormously important in enabling this to happen,” he adds. “The Burramys Project is a globally innovative strategy to achieve a successful conservation translocation for this critically endangered species, a plan inspired by understanding how these possums and their ancestors survived the last 25 million years of climatic challenges in cool temperate lowland rainforests.”