Albany residents needed for backyard conservation project to help protect threatened species

The answers to the conservation of some of the Great Southern’s most threatened native species could be hiding in Albany residents’ backyards.

Researchers at the UWA Albany Centre and Bristol University are calling on locals to get behind a new project to discover how residential gardens can play a critical role in wildlife conservation.

No matter the size or type of garden, locals are invited to take part in an online survey to discover how they can help create wildlife friendly features to attract new residents.

UWA ecology lecturer Dr Paul Close said the survey had received hundreds of responses from across the country.

“Albany is a relatively small and green city and we know that we have mammals, birds and reptiles that actually call residential gardens home,” he said.

“What we are interested in is finding out whether we can manipulate gardens to help conserve some of our most threatened species such as western ringtail possums and southern brown bandicoots.

“We need to understand what features allow them to persist in peoples’ gardens, then the willingness and capacity of Albany residents to help them survive through wildlife friendly yards.

“Everybody’s garden counts.”

To take part in the survey visit, https://bit.ly/2CiAOBW.