Awakening Of Interest In Natural History

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31580, 18 January 1968, Page 10

Awakening Of Interest In Natural History

The fact that Australian animals long thought extinct were being found went to prove that practically nothing was known of the inhabitants of the bush, said Dr W. D. L. Ride, director of the Western Australian Museum, in Christchurch yesterday.

One of the factors in these rediscoveries, he said, was the great awakening of interest in natural history by Australians in recent years.

The big problem now facing zoologists after finding rare animals was how best they could conserve them. Normally when a discovery of a species was made on Crown land application was made to have it declared a reserved area. Then the animals or birds were studied over a period to determine the best methods of conservation. The discovery last year of its Parma Wallaby on Kawau Island had created considerable interest in Australia, as it had been thought extinct in Australia. However, it was believed that a small colony had since been found in New South Wales. It had been tentatively identified as belonging to the same species as the New Zealand animal, he said. In recent months a number of the Parma wallabies from New Zealand had been imported into a number of zoOs in Australia in the hope of establishing captive colonies for study. The trend towards a greater interest in natural history was being sponsored by the educational departments of Australia’s museums, he said. If museums could be made challenging enough to children they would spend far more time in them during their vacation. New Zealand museums had gained a considerable reputation for the tremendous advance they had made in this educative field in the last few years, he said.