{"id":4662,"date":"2014-04-20T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T06:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=4662"},"modified":"2014-04-20T07:00:13","modified_gmt":"2014-04-20T06:00:13","slug":"the-easter-bilby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=4662","title":{"rendered":"The Easter Bilby."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"How<\/a>
How cute is that?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

He’s got long ears, is made of chocolate and appears everywhere this time of year – No, I’m not talking about the Easter Bunnie – I’d like you to meet the Easter Bilby.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right \u2013 Bilby.<\/p>\n

For those who aren\u2019t from Down Under, the Bilby is a small marsupial native to Australia.<\/p>\n

They have big ears and are terribly shy.<\/p>\n

They are also massively cute and in very real danger of extinction. In fact, there used to be two types of Bilbies \u2013 the great and the lesser Bilby \u2013 but it\u2019s believed lesser Bilbies are now extinct.<\/p>\n

Bilbies live in the dry outback \u2013 and are losing the battle for survival against introduced species. Their land is being taken for grazing, and introduced predators such as cats and foxes are a real problem. But the biggest threat to the Bilby is the rabbit.<\/p>\n

\"b<\/a>
Cute as they are, bunnies are not so popular in Australia – and in many places it’s illegal to keep one as a pet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rabbits were introduced to Australia by early settlers and have become a serious environmental issue \u2013 breeding in huge numbers and causing a vast amount of damage to the landscape.<\/p>\n

And they are driving the Bilbies from their homes.<\/p>\n

We all know it\u2019s not the rabbits’ fault as such \u2013 but\u00a0they are a serious problem.<\/p>\n

So \u2013 back in 1968, a 9 year old girl Rose-Marie Dusting, wrote a story, “Billy The Aussie Easter Bilby,” which she published as a book 11 years later.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The original Bilby lady – campaigning for her furry friends.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The book was designed to promote awareness of the endangered Bilby.<\/p>\n

Other books followed by other authors \u2013 and then there were the chocolate Bilbies.<\/p>\n

Most of the authors and chocolate makers gave money to charities devoted to saving the Bilbies \u2013 but sadly not all (You know who I mean large multi-national chocolate company \u2013 shame on you!)<\/p>\n

\"Money<\/a>
Money from sales of these tasty treats goes to helping the bilbies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The movement is growing \u2013 and Easter Bilbies are found all over Australia now \u2013 and they have their own website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So this weekend, while you are munching the ears off a chocolate bunnie, spare a thought for the Bilby<\/a>.\u00a0 It would be such a shame to lose these delightful creatures forever.<\/p>\n

\"He<\/a>
He needs a friend or two.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  He’s got long ears, is made of chocolate and appears everywhere this time of year – No, I’m not talking about the Easter Bunnie – I’d like you to meet the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-travels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-1dc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}