Easter bilby important too
Radio National (Canberra), Bush Telegraph, 10/04/2009 11:07am
Compere Michael Mackenzie says that chocolate eggs are traditionally consumed on Easter Sunday, but there are also Easter bilbies, an Australian contribution to this religious season. He says it has emerged that not all chocolate companies are contributing to the research effort attempting to secure the bilby’s place in the Australian environment, where Dr Brian Cooke is part of an ongoing fight against the rabbit. He interviews Prof Tony Peacock, Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre, who says he is concerned that some companies pay a licence fee to Rabbit-Free Australia, which invented the trademark of Easter Bilby, but other companies, like Cadbury, ignore it and make no contribution at all. He says that Rabbit-Free Australia is a foundation out of SA, which created the original story of the Easter Bilby, which is now known to most Australia children. He says these licence fees and the contributions of chocolate companies have been ‘really important’ in doing research and establishing sanctuaries. He says that Rabbit-Free Australia has sponsored research and the Bilby Appreciation Society has a sanctuary in Qld. He says that to date, these licence fees have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, where the bilby is now extinct in many parts of Australia, due to foxes and rabbits. He says that bilbies have been restored to Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Scotia Sanctuary near Broken Hill.
He interviews Dr Brian Cooke, researcher, who says that he is involved in research commissioned by Australian Wool Innovations into how the calicivirus strain of rabbit virus is now fending for itself in the wild, and the results so far are concerning, where it is possible that a form of resistance is resulting in a recent increase in rabbit populations. He says that Dr Tanya Strive, research scientist, CSIRO, has recently discovered another naturally-occurring calicivirus that is non-pathogenic but is effectively immunising local rabbits. Peacock says he believes that chocolate companies, like Cadbury, should pay licence fees to Rabbit-Free Australia so that they can use the chocolate Easter Bilby as a marketing tool. Mackenzie says he hopes it’s a case that Cadbury has just made ‘a simple mistake’ in not paying licence fees to Rabbit-Free Australia in order to market and sell its chocolate Easter Bilby.
Interviewee: Prof Tony Peacock, Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre; Dr Brian Cooke, researcher.
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