William weighed in this week and tipped the scales at …. 93.9g!

Keepers turned the temperature down to 8 ◦C during the past week, and the possums are beginning to think about going into torpor…  But so far, William is still enjoying his dinner every night!

Mountain Pygmy Possum Quiz Question:
1.    Australia’s Mountain Pygmy Possum is the only marsupial that?
a.    Has a pouch
b.    Hibernates
c.    Does not live in trees
d.    Likes to snowboard

Tell us your answer by commenting below!

We’ll reveal the answer next week…

All it takes to help support Zoos Victoria fight extinction for the Eastern Barred Bandicoot is your common cents.

Victoria’s grasslands are one of Australia’s most threatened ecosystems with less than 0.1% remaining. Sadly these shrinking grasslands are also home to some of Victoria’s most precious animals.

The Eastern Barred Bandicoot is a master of disguise; incredible at hiding in its grassland habitat, with the help of its distinctive bars across its rump. Due to the clearning of grassland habitat and introduction of foxes and feral cats, these mischievous marsupials are all but extinct on mainland Australia.

Here is where you come in… Are you up for the challenge?

A new born Eastern Barred Bandicoot is almost the same size as a 5c coin. Just 300 x5c coins are all it takes to support Zoos Victoria’s Eastern Barred Bandicoot threatened species program. Your Common Cents donation helps the Eastern Barred Bandicoot through captive breeding and re-introduction to safe, predator-proof natural habitat.

To participate in the Common Cents Silver Challenge simply collect 300 x 5c coins to donate to Zoos Victoria’s Eastern Barred Bandicoot threatened species program. Be sure to download and print the Common Cents Poster so you can mark off the coins as you collect them. Remember, our Bandicoots are counting on you!

Upon Collecting $15 please send a cheque or money order clearly marked with your name, school (if appropriate) and address to: Zoos Victoria Foundation, Common Cents Silver Challenge, PO Box 74 Parkville, Victoria 3052.

Join us as we follow William’s journey into his winter sleep…

The time is approaching when the Mountain Pygmy Possums at Healesville Sanctuary will begin their extreme weight-loss program.

Mountain Pygmy Possums are Australia’s only true hibernating species, and before going into torpor for the winter they gain an enormous amount of weight.

William’s food bowl

William is our fattest possum this year at an enormous 98g! That’s more than double his summer weight!

But once the temperature begins to drop, he will stop eating and progressively dip in and out of torpor over the next several days.  Finally, around June when the enclosures are maintained at only 2 degrees Celcius, he will be in his true hibernating state and won’t rouse properly until the spring.

While he’s hibernating, his metabolism slows down to the lowest possible rate to keep him alive, but he will still lose a LOT of weight during that time.

Keepers will weigh him each week to make sure he is OK – and we will let you know how much weight he is losing at each weigh-in.

So tune in next time and we’ll see if he falls “below the yellow line…”

Check out the cute video about Mountain Pygmy Possums on Act Wild

Zoos Victoria’s priority international conservation partnership with the Tenkile Conservation Alliance (TCA) continues to deliver amazing results in the field with the Critically Endangered Scott’s Tree Kangaroo (Dendrolagus Scottae) being caught on camera!

Camera traps funded by the United Nations Development Program and set up by local research teams revealed images of the elusive Tree Kangaroo locally known as ‘Tenkile’ in the Torricelli Mountains just last week. Director of TCA, Jim Thomas informed us that some of the local men broke down to tears because they were so proud to see Tenkile on their land!

When TCA was established in 2001 there was thought to be only 100 individuals left, however through the dedication of the team on the ground and huge support from communities living in the area it is now estimated that there are around 300 Tenkile. These photographs highlight the value and commitment of the TCA and local villagers in protecting their flora and fauna for the future.

Zoos Victoria couldn’t be happier for the Tenkile Conservation Alliance! We are all looking forward to seeing more of these amazing creatures in the future!

You can find out more about this species and other Tree Kangaroos at www.tenkile.com and stay informed about what’s going on in the Torricelli’s on the Tenkile Conservation Alliance Facebook Page.

The photographs were taken by our very talented keeper, Damian Goodall. Using time-lapse photography Damian was able to photograph the sequence of movements it took for Alycia to moult from her old exoskeleton. The video (below) tells the story of the moulting process that can take spiders some time to complete.

All spiders need to moult in order to grow in size and this is a naturally occurring event.
If you are lucky enough to witness something like this at the Zoo or in nature with our native spiders, take the time to watch it and to observe and appreciate what a complicated process it is. They are very vulnerable while this is happening so they should not be disturbed.

Spiders are one of the true great survivors and are an important part of our ecosystems. They do not need to be feared but appreciated for their beauty. You can come to Melbourne Zoo and see Alycia and our other huge Tarantulas on display.

Have you ever seen this sort of thing happen in nature? Please tell us about it

Sometimes when I think about some of the places where Zoos Victoria is Fighting Extinction, it is difficult to imagine a more challenging place than the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Zoos Victoria is working with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in eastern DRC to establish community wildlife reserves that will help to protect greater ape species such as the eastern lowland gorilla and chimpanzees.

JGI team in DRC

Working with communities is the key to saving wildlife in the Congo, but this is made all the more difficult with the DRC being ranked the poorest country in world after 50 years of war and civil unrest. It is really hard to save wildlife when the people find it difficult to survive.

The greatest threats to gorillas and chimpanzees in this area are habitat clearing for coltan mining and the bush meat trade. This been going on for years but now with the population of people growing, wildlife is under greater threat and most communities do not realize how their activities are affecting wildlife such as gorillas.

This is why JGI and Zoos Victoria are so committed to Community Conservation. By linking sustainable development, alternative livelihoods and public health services to wildlife conservation the outcomes are much stronger for people and wildlife. In the DRC communities that protect their wildlife have greater access to family planning services, water and sanitation programs, agriculture, education and one community has even managed to build its own hydro electric plant!

Supporting Education
Zoos Victoria has always been passionate about education and so we are really proud to be supporting  JGI’s environmental education program in Walikale district. JGI is working in 10 villages and 100 schools which sit between Kahuzi Biega National Park and Maiko National Park.  We have assisted to fund village signs raising awareness of the penalties for consuming bush meat and showing that there are sustainable alternatives such as fish. The messages on these signs will reach around 120,000 people which is phenomenal.

Supporting Zoos Victoria’s International Conservation Programs is one way for you to be part of the picture of working with communities in Africa. Recycling your old mobile phones by donating them to us as part of  They’re Calling on You will directly benefit JGI’s work in the DRC protecting wild Gorillas…. which is pretty cool!

The Mountain Pygmy Possums at Healesville Sanctuary are eating their way into larger and larger sizes…

But that’s OK, because these tiny creatures are preparing for hibernation, and need to gain as much weight as they can before winter.  Some will expand from their normal weight of around 40g to more than double this!

Mountain Pygmy Possums are the only mammal species in Australia – and the only marsupials – that go into a true hibernation state, for up to 7 months each winter.  They live in the snow fields atop some of our highest peaks, in summer feeding on seeds and insects found among the boulders.

But in winter their bodies go into a deep torpor and they sleep, deep under the snow blanket, until spring. Their metabolism slows down and their body temperature drops to just 2 degrees Celcius.  They are so deeply asleep that they do not waken even if handled.

As the days shorten and the temperature falls, the possums begin eating as if their little lives depended on it – which they do.  If they don’t gain enough weight they will be too thin and weak, once they wake from torpor, to face the enormous energy demands of the next breeding season.

In our captive breeding facility we will mimic the conditions in the snow fields, dropping the temperature in their refrigerated enclosures gradually during the next few months until it reaches a chilly 2oC for the winter months.
There are only 3 known populations of these critically endangered animals in the wild.  So our captive breeding program is an important part of fighting extinction for these unique and fascinating little animals!

You can find out more about this super-cute possum now on Act Wild including a great video presented by Healesville’s own Paula Watson. Check it out here

My biggest adventure with wildlife in Melako Conservancy in Kenya usually involves a hyena- I seem to attract them like flies. And yes at first you only think how unattractive they are, until you see them hunting or spending time on the edge of camp and you can’t help but gain an appreciation for the importance of their role in nature. That’s what i tell myself anyway…… Some of my most memorable wildlife experiences have been with hyena at the Oryx camp in Melako. We once had an old goat carcass that we decided not to bury. So we plonked it on the bonnet of the landcruiser and drove to the nearby airstrip. We put the carcass on the ground, turned off the engine and waited for the hyena to arrive, it was breath holding stuff. After about a minute, you could begin to hear the whooping call from one member of the pack to another and all of a sudden they came out of nowhere, grabbed the carcass and were gone in a flash. Amazing.

Beisa Oryx

Melako is home to some incredible rangeland wildlife. These are the tough animals, the ones who can go for long periods of time without water, the ones who can travel huge distances to access food, the ones who are truly wild. I have seen cheetah, elephants, lots of very fat giraffe, Grevy’s zebra, gerenuk and ostrich. But one of my favourites is the Beisa Oryx. These desert antelope are exquisite! Big brown eyes, elegantly curved horns, almost fawn in colour and so very shy. Some of the larger herds are in Melako, existing where there is no livestock, as they have the ability to go without water for such long periods of time. When you see an oryx, it is like gold….they are so precious.

Oryx, like so many species of wildlife are under threat in northern Kenya due to competing with livestock for resources. But one of the new programs being implemented in Melako is Holistic Grazing, where the community actually use their livestock to restore the rangelands. By keeping their cattle and goats in tight herds, there is a greater concentration of hooves breaking up the hard ground. This then allows rain to penetrate and you have the good grasses growing more freely and out competing the weeds. I think this is really clever, using the greatest threat to the rangelands to actually restore the rangelands!

One of Zoos Victoria’s most interesting international partnerships is with Flora Fauna International in the Phnom Samkos Sanctuary in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia.

Cambodia is a bit of a Global Biodiversity Hotspot, which means that it has incredibly unique and diverse wildlife that can be found nowhere else in the world. New species are being discovered all the time, so it is a very exciting country to work in from a wildlife point of view.

However Cambodia is still recovering from the conflict and violence of the Pol Pot regime, which targeted educated Cambodians. This means that there is a huge gap in education  as schools and universities are slowly being rebuilt.

Zoos Victoria is so proud to support the Cardamom Mountains Research Group and masters students through the Royal University of Pheom Penh. Supporting students builds the capacity of Cambodians to take an active role in researching and protecting their own wildlife. We’re also helping to train sanctuary rangers to protect the cardamom’s fragile environment.

By supporting Zoos Victoria’s Fighting Exctinction Commitment through something as simple as adopting one of our animals or becoming a Zoo Member you are contributing to our important work in the Cardamom Mountains and the future of Cambodian students and wildlife.