Happy Easter from Bowdle HQ!

Bowdleflode News No. 35 – April 2021

Easter treats are not just for humans!

Black-capped squirrel monkey with Easter treat

Painting papier-mâché eggs in eye-catching colours, the dedicated keepers – who have continued to work tirelessly throughout lockdowns to care for the zoo’s animals – hid tasty treats for meerkats Frank, Dracula, Archie, Penelope, Timon, Aurora and Meko to find amongst the sand and rocks in their home. For the zoo’s mischievous troop of Bolivian black-capped squirrel monkeys, hanging Easter baskets have been installed to eggsplore!

ZSL’s Animal Manager, Angela Ryan, comments “After what has felt like a particularly long winter, Easter is finally approaching and the warm weather has made a comeback – making it the perfect time to put on an egg hunt for the animals to enjoy ”

With the Spring weekend set to be the kind visitors would have loved to have explored, many of the nations fabulous wildlife parks and zoos will now look forward to their reopenings on 12 April after a very difficult year.

Easter surprise for endangered frog

Once thought to number in the millions, the Northern Corroboree frog has become a symbol of the pressures facing Australia’s alpine environments through bushfires, feral pests and land degradation. The tiny black and yellow frogs have only a small and extremely fragile habitat area across the Fiery and Brindabella Ranges, and numbers are now as low as a thousand.

Susan Ley, Minister for the Environment, just recently opened a new home for the Northern Corroboree Frog breeding program at Taronga Zoo, backed by A$495,000 of funding as part of the Morrison Government’s bushfire response. The purpose-built conservation facility will be able to house up to 600 frogs and be a lifeline for the species.

As part of its A$200 million bushfire response for wildlife and habitat, the Morrison Government has invested A$10.3 million for wildlife rescue and care services, working with zoos and establishing insurance populations for at risk species, as well as captive breeding programs and genetic analyses. Taronga’s experts are regularly called upon to act as the last line of defence, stepping to protect iconic species from the brink of extinction.