LITTLE NATIVE BEARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19736, 8 September 1927, Page 17

LITTLE NATIVE BEARS.

PLEA FOR PRESERVATION. OUTCRY IN AUSTRALIA. [from our own CORRESPONDENT. 3 SYDNEY. Sept. 1. The question of an open season in Queensland for the fascinating little native bear, or koala, which is closely protected in other States, has caused something of a stir in Sydney, and has been given widespread prominence in the press. The protection of tlus little animal, which is quite lnotteuEive, and not in any circumstances a peat, is a matter, it is urged, which should be taken up by the Commonwealth. A professor who has made a study ol the native bears says plainly that the slaughter oi these animals, merely for the pioiits from their pelts, is one of the most brutalised* occupations in which anyone can engage, especially as the little bears are so harmless, so affectionate in captivity, and so tenacious of life, even when severely wounded. One of the scientists at the Austx-alian Museum in Sydney tells the touching story of one of these boars when taken quite young from its motner, as an example of the undesirable practice of keeping them captive. The baby bear fretted and cried in its loneliness and would not sleep on the cushion which had been provided for it. It wanted to get back to the,gum trees and gum leaves. It died in a few days. The writer saw a native bear in captivity m a miniature zoological gardens in a* country town in New South Wales recently. It looked utterly miserable, away from its natural environment. Australia is being told plainly that will bo an everlasting disgrace to it if it allows the native bear to be exterminated by the hand of man, as it has allowed other animal species to become extinct because of a laissez faire attitude.