PROTECTION WANTED

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 71, 21 September 1927, Page 15

PROTECTION WANTED

——♦— — ■ QUEENSLAND NATIVE BEAR A BRUTAL OCCUPATION (From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, Ist September. The question 1 of an open season in Queensland for the fascinating little native bear, or koala, which is closelyprotected in other States, has, caused something of a stir in Sydney, and has been given widespread prominence in the Press. Tho protection of this little animal, which is quite inoffensive, and not in any circumstances a pest, is a matter, it is urged, which should be taken up by the Commonwealth, in view of the fact that the borders lend themselves to an infringement of the State laws.

A professor who has made a Btudy of the nativo boars says plainly that the slaughter of these animals, merely for the profits from their pelts, is one of tho most brutalised occupations in which any one.can ongago, especially as tho littlo boars are so harmless, bo affectionate in captivity, and so tenacious of ltfo, even whon severly wounded.

One of tho scientists at the Australian Museum in Sydrfey tells the touching • story of one of those bears when taken quito young from its mother, as an example of tho undesirable practico of keeping them captive. The baby bear fretfced.and cried in its loneliness, and would not sleep on the cushion which had beon provided for it. It wanted to get back to tho gum troes and gum leaves. It died in a few days.

The writer saw a native bear in captivity in a rainiaturo zoological gardens in a country town in Now South Wales recently. It looked utterly miserable, away from its natural environment.

Australia is being told plainly that it will be an everlasting d;sjrace to it if it allows the native bear to bo exterminated by the hand of man, as it has allowed other animal species to become exterminated because of a laissoz fairo attitude. ■