The Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate has launched an online portal to connect Canberrans with volunteers working to fight wombat mange.
Announced by Minister for the Environment, Rebecca Vassarotti, the Directorate’s portal is to track wombat sightings and enable a quick response to treat sick and injured wombats.
“Our native wombats are precious native animals, but they are susceptible to a debilitating skin infection caused by parasitic mites that burrow into the skin, often killing them,” Ms Vassarotti said.
“Until recently, there hasn’t been dedicated, targeted funding for community groups to help the plight of wombats in the ACT,” she said.
“The community can report wombat sightings through a new web portal so ACT Wildlife and Wombat Rescue can coordinate a quick response and provide treatment to sick and injured wombats if possible.”
Ms Vassarotti said the easy-to-use portal was one part of a larger project to attack wombat mange.
“A program to treat this mange in wombats will form part of a broader forthcoming wombat management strategy for the ACT, which will aim to maintain healthy and sustainable populations of wombats as part of our iconic native biodiversity of this region,” she said.
“The wombat mange project will deliver coordinated and comprehensive treatment across the ACT.”
The Minister said the Directorate was working with volunteer group ACT Wildlife and Wombat Rescue to map wombat abundance and distribution in the ACT to coordinate and target treatment where necessary.
“I welcome the involvement of ACT Wildlife and Wombat Rescue volunteers and University of Tasmania ecologists, whose extensive experience with treating wombats with mange is significantly helping to control this debilitating disease,” Ms Vassarotti said.
The Directorate’s wombat sightings portal can be accessed at this PS News link.
