Australia is famous for its wonderful wildlife. Kangaroos, koalas, emus, and crocodiles. But its wildlife is much more diverse than many people realise. While we are all familiar with the icons, many people fail to be aware of the amazing array of Australia's Mini Marsupials, the numbat, the chuditch, the woyly and the honey possum to name a few. But these tiny marsupials are under threat of extinction from land degradation and from feral animals. Australia has the worse record of native flora and fauna extinction in the world. 95% or arid zone animals have disappeared. The reason uncontrolled land clearing. Many conservationists point accusing fingers at Brazil and Indonesia for their so called reckless attitude to forest degradation but Australia is up there with the worst of them, uncontrolled land clearing is as bad if not worse than anywhere else in the world. Add to this the incredible threat to endangered species of introduced predators like the fox and cat and the result is mass destruction of native animals. It is estimated that some 36 billion small animals fall victim to feral cats and foxes every year. But there are those who are acting to save these Mini Marsupials before it's too late. In this programme we see the beautiful but fragile honey possum, the only possum to live solely on the nectar . For the first time, using infra red cameras we se what these mini marsupials get up to when they think no one is watching. We see the woyly that can eat plants that ...

• published: 24 Jul 2011
• views: 12175
• author: StorytellerMedia