MEDIA RELEASE: EUROBODALLA ENTHUSIASTS BACK WILD KOALA DAY
Wild Koala Day is this Sunday 3rd May. A group of Eurobodalla enthusiasts is keen to mobilize the local community for a koala population revival. They are celebrating Wild Koala Day by launching a new website eurokoalas.com
Wild Koala Day was the brainchild of Janine Duffy, President of Victoria’s Koala Clancy Foundation a few years ago. It is celebrated annually by koala support groups and koala businesses especially in Queensland and NSW where wild populations are declining dramatically.
Coordinator of our own volunteer Eurobodalla Koalas Project Dr Keith Joliffe said “There are still wild koalas in the Eurobodalla but they’re very scarce.”
“Since the fires there have been two sightings, one at East Lynne and one in Bodalla State Forest,” he said
“Before that we hadn’t heard of one since 2013 at Nerrigundah village. We’d like the local population revived to the point where it no longer teeters on the edge of extinction,” he said.
Dr Joliffe explained that his group is conducting a Commonwealth-funded ground-truthing project, a public awareness exercise and is revising a published local recovery strategy.
“We also want to encourage land managers, businesses and the general community to adopt an entrepreneurial approach to the Eurobodalla’s koala story and continuing habitat for commercial, cultural and biodiversity reasons,” Dr Joliffe said.
Local residents can report sightings directly to National Parks and Wildlife Service at Narooma, or to Dr Joliffe and his helpers through eurokoalas.com
Go to wildkoaladay.com.au for more ways you can help koalas from home.
CONTACT FOR MORE LOCAL INFORMATION & INTERVIEW:
Keith Joliffe
Mobile 0427 546 156
Email keith1947@hotmail.com
Skype keith.joliffe1 or Edward Keith Joliffe
DOWNLOAD JANINE DUFFY’S RECORDED MESSAGE FOR RADIO HERE:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10KhJMtYTuHayitxVP7EHE7vuR4Hf5x-O/view