Hairy Nose Month

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I have just been trimming my moustache. It is extremely handsome, blonde, and hanging down below my chin, fixed on with a doubled over sticky label. I practiced in the bathroom, and reckon it will stay on long enough to explain to each school why  I have  hairy nose on.

         May is ‘hairy Nose Month’, when everyone is encouraged to ‘wear whiskers for wildlife’ to raise money for endangered furry creatures. In my case, this year, it’s the northern hairy nosed wombats, and my proceeds from The Hairy Nosed Wombats Find a New Home with Sue Degenarro will be going to The Wombat Foundation (www.wombatfoundation.com.au) to help with research projects, like the northern hairy nosed census using DNA testing.

         Back in the 1980s there were only 35 Northern hairy nosed wombats in the world, and nearly two thirds were male, and elderly. It seemed like the northern hairy noses were doomed.

         But volunteers raised money to enclose their home  in central QLD, to keep out predators, and to put in feed and water stations. We also raise money to study hairy nosed wombats.

   Now there are about 200 northern hairy noses. They are still more critically endangered than the panda, but there is a good chance that their population will keep on growing.

         The Hairy Nosed Wombats Find a New Home  is  the almost true story of how the northern hairy noses found a second home, at the Richard Underwood Reserve. Now there are plans to find a third home for hairy noses.

         It is a good news story for endangered species. It shows that if enough people care we can save endangered species, just by giving them a safe place to live. Up at Epping the hairy noses are doing what wombats do best: at, digging, and creating baby wombats.

If you’d like to know more about northern hairy noses, or help raise money for them, go to www.wombatfoundation.com.au Send in photos of you and your friends wearing whiskers- the best wins a cop of the book.

         Or choose your own  favourite whiskery wildlife, and this month, wear whiskers for them.