Tag: bilby

This is not a quoll but it is a marsupial. It’s a bilby, a relative of the bandicoot.

So down here, it’s true, we have an alternative to the Easter Bunny called the Easter Bilby. This is a good thing because it promotes bilby conservation and reduces the level of veneration that rabbits get down here. They deserve none. I would say, through no fault of their own mind you, they deserve the opposite. As do foxes, feral cats, irresponsible cat owners with no respect for native wildlife, etc. The symbolism of fertility is somewhat broken but it’s not the first time someone’s missed the point around here. Whatever.

Frankly you’d have to be just a bit inattentive or maybe just homesick to celebrate a festival of springtime resurrection going into winter with an animal that does untold amounts of ecological damage. Sadly, Australians have yet to reinvent Easter as their own thing (eating chocolate to prepare for winter maybe?) because not doing things that most other countries do makes us shit-scared and weak at the knees. Also we think we still live in the Northern hemisphere or something.

I’m not sure why but the bilbies like standing in their food bowls when they eat. Strange creatures.

Happy Easter everyone, and don’t forget to accuse people in Easter Bunny costumes of being un-Australian bilby-hating bastard sons of devil lagomorphs.

These are not quolls, but they are marsupials. These are bilbies, a kind of long-eared bandicoot.

So Hugh Jackman lent his voice to a certain holiday hare in Rise of the Guardians, right? That bastard. Rabbits have done an immense amount of damage across Australia’s many and varied ecologies since some West Country wanker released them into the wild for – you guessed it – hunting. And acclimatisation.

So for an influential and widely-admired Australian to go in to bat for rabbits in any way shape or form is cultural treason in a way. It’d be like George Clooney giving a thumbs up to kudzu, Stephen Fry saying what a marvellous thing mad cow disease is, Peter Jackson cuddling possums for New Zealand. No. No no no. Wrong. Bad. Shouldn’t. Don’t!

Anyway, the reason i bring this up is that we do Easter Bilbies at Easter down here, because bilbies are far lovelier than rabbits where Australia is concerned.

This is not a quoll but it is a marsupial. This is a bilby joey.

Australia’s full of animals whose populations are threatened by invasive species, habitat loss and other factors. Conservation doesn’t come cheap – the chuditch is possibly soon to start its second round of recovery at a cost of $2.6 million over ten years – and lately there’s been talk of prioritising particular species over others, letting the really hopeless cases fend for themselves. As such, The Global Mail’s recent articles “Farewell, Furry Friends” and “Going, Going…” make for interesting reading, even where bilbies are concerned.

As for what the articles say about koalas… yes.