Update on Tiny Houses for Tuans
Posted on 16 March, 2022 by Jess
We are so, so grateful to our amazing community!
We are delighted to announce that we received a total of $5,000 in donations in the first five days of our ‘Tiny Houses for Tuans’ fundraising campaign! At the time of writing, we are only $311 away from reaching our goal of raising $6,000 to replace 60 broken nest boxes for our long-term Tuan nest box project.
To read more about this project – click here
Phascogale in a nest box! (photo by Jess Lawton)
The Tuan (also known as the Brush-tailed Phascogale) is a very cute hollow-dependent marsupial carnivore that can easily be identified by its characteristic black brushy tail. Phascogales eat mainly invertebrates, and forage for food on and under the bark of trees, on logs, and in leaf litter on the ground. They have an extraordinary life history – all males die from stress following their first breeding season before they reach one year of age. This threatened species is in decline in Victoria and has undergone substantial range contractions and regional extinctions. Key threats include predation by cats and foxes, climate change and drought, habitat removal and degradation, and the extensive loss of trees with hollows. Recent research has highlighted that the Mount Alexander region is a stronghold for tuans and is important for the future conservation of this species.
To make a donation and contribute to this project – click here
Can’t donate? Here are some other ways you can help threatened tuans:
- Keep pets, especially cats (known predators of phascogales), indoors at night when tuans are active
- Retain leaf litter, logs, and trees (especially mature trees) on your property, as these provide foraging and den resources for tuans
- Provide your own ‘Tiny Houses’ – consider installing nest boxes on your property
- Contribute to restoring healthy forests by joining your local Landcare or Friends group. To find a group – click here
- Consider volunteering on Connecting Country’s monitoring project (next surveys in autumn 2022) – email jess@connectingcountry.org.au to register your interest
- Share our campaign with your friends and networks.
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