– By Woodleighville resident, Nasmin Florett
In the term 1 holidays I borrowed the Planet Earth documentary from the library. When it got to the section of the endangered snow leopard, a strange feeling came over me, numbness, frozen.
I felt then and still feel now that extinction is an issue that needs to be further researched; I mean what do we really know about extinction and endangered animals?
Leadbeaters possum are suffering from lack of habitat, this is thanks to the Black Saturday bushfires back in 2009. These possums nest in the hollows of gum trees. The gum trees take up to 200 years to become hollow. 200!
We’ve all heard of the Tassie devils right? Well their endangered from a disease called Devil Facial Tumour Disease or DFTD. It is a type of cancer that forms in clusters of cells that spreads via the devil biting each other’s heads while fighting for food. This has wiped out 80% of their population. They are however recovering in Healesville sanctuary where a lot are being breed.
Ok, so I’ve got my topic. For my action, I want to go to my primary school and teach 4 separate lessons to the four senior classes. So not just stand there and talk but actually teach a proper lesson.
With these lessons, I’m planning to really get the message across to how important endangered animals are. But also to explain exactly what extinction is and how it happens.
To discover this information I’ve done a bit of internet researching and have already found out lots of info.
And I am currently in the process of posting a letter to Melbourne zoo.
The causes of extinction are big and hard to stop. Tree logging, habitat destruction, hunting, poaching the list goes on and on. Zoos Victoria are working hard to protect certain species from extinction. Like the orange bellied parrot. There’re only 36 left in the wild, most of these are juvenile.
There are many more animals out there suffering, but we can help. Using recycled paper products, this includes cardboard, regular paper, toilet paper and if you’re buying timber, insure it has the FSC symbol on it. (FSC stands for: The Forest Stewardship Council, which is an American organisation set up to protect forests around the world) another thing you might want to look into is adoption programs, where you donate money to a certain species you choose.
Log onto the Melbourne zoo website for general info on campaigns and more things you can do to help.
But please remember;
Extinction is forever.
The Morris Ward Minutes 