Toys - Backyard Buddies

BACKYARD BUDDIES
Brand New Collectors Series; two (2) great friends, (Penguin and Platypus)

An initiative to raise funds for the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife.

Thank you for taking care of us - by giving us a good home to live, you (in turn) help the “Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife” protect other Australian native animals and their homes in the wild.

• Brand New Toys Designed in Australia
• Colourful plush toys in excellent condition (no issues)
• All new materials
• Polyester fibres
• Conforms to toy safety regulations
• Discounted new toys and free delivery

Penguin
Height: 29 cm
Width: 20 cm

Platypus
Height: 34 cm
Width: 23 cm

FREE DELIVERY anywhere, worldwide

About the Penguin
(Eudyptula Minor) is the smallest species of penguin in the world, with an average height of just 33 cm. They are found only on the southern coastlines of Australia and New Zealand. Populations of Little Penguins are facing serious decline. On Granite Island in South Australia, numbers have fallen from 1548 in 2001 to just 22 in 2015.

Many Little Penguin populations are data deficient, so monitoring is a vital ingredient in effective conservation efforts.  
Funding from FNPW supported the installation of twelve bioacoustics automated recorders on Troubridge and Granite Islands in South Australia to determine the effectiveness of the recorders in different conditions. On each island, the recorders were positioned every 50m along one transect that crossed penguin breeding territories. The recorders were set to record for three hours just after nightfall and three hours just before dawn and were left to record every day for two months.

A total of 3132 hours of recordings were successfully collected over the two islands. The number of active nests within 10m of the recorders varied between 1-14 on Troubridge Island and 1-4 on Granite Island. A total of forty-five volunteers (local community and students) participated in field trips to collect the data and helped with penguin census on Granite Island.

The Little Penguin monitoring project is an ongoing project. Current and future projects are focusing on (1) the impact of parasites/viruses and (2) environmental changes on the declines of the little penguins, (3) the importance of habitat for little penguin distribution and breeding success, and (4) filling out critical knowledge gaps in little penguin population trends.
Source: (FNPW ORG AU) - Penguins (Image courtesy of (Dr Diane Colombelli-Négrel), Flinders University. 

About the Platypus
Predominantly found along the Great Dividing Range, in parts of Tasmania, across the eastern seaboard and in an isolated pocket of South Australia. It can also be found close to major population centres such as in the Yarra River, just 10 kilometres from Melbourne's CBD. In 2014 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) raised the status of the platypus from least concerned to near-threatened. But Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research (CESAR) senior ecologist Josh Griffiths said no-one really knew for sure how many platypuses there were in the wild. "The problem is no-one's really looking," Mr Griffiths said. "And that's one of the real issues with platypus conservation - there is no reliable way of estimating platypus numbers, even at a local scale. Australian Platypus Conservancy biologist Geoff Williams said habitat destruction, climate change, predation and direct human contact were the main threats to the platypus.: Platypus Images courtesy of (Doug Gimesy) & (ABC Open: Simone Law).