Playing God, by Bridie Smith

An excellent article from Australia's The Age... zoos and aquariums love to use the analogy of the Ark, but the fact is, the Ark has limited capacity, limited crew, and limited resources.  The challenge becomes how to decide which creatures to invest our efforts in saving, both in captivity and in the wild.  And so a sort of triage is established - some species which will be fine (probably, at least in the short term) without our help, some who are probably doomed, with or without it, and some for which it makes all the difference.

Playing God, by Bridie Smith

With so many creatures under threat of extinction, and so little money to fund conservation efforts, some say it's time to pick who will survive.

The noise is piercing and poignant. It starts as a determined drill reminiscent of the "tut-tut" of Skippy - but delivered with a bit more chirrup - then accelerates to a pitch and pace rivalling that of a lorikeet. Then it goes quiet. That's it. The last call, made by the last Christmas Island pipistrelle bat. It lasts barely 40 seconds.

Before the Christmas Island pipistrelle left the world for good, he was recorded over three nights as he moved through the rainforest. Using ultrasonic pulses of sound to forage for food, this bat was feasting on the fly: expertly catching and consuming insects mid-air. If he was aware scientists were tracking him, he wasn't obliging them. More than 250 kilograms of equipment had been lugged to the tiny island outpost in the Indian Ocean, 1500 kilometres north-west of the Australian mainland, as part of a desperate attempt to rescue his species.

But he was having none of it. He gave the harp nets and mist nets the slip, zipping over the top, night after night. And he ignored a purpose-built 15-metre-long tunnel trap, despite it being set up in one of his favourite foraging spots, a corridor lined with thick rainforest vegetation. His calls, picked up by detectors, indicated he was active. He flitted between feeding sites and reassured researchers with frequent banter. But on the fourth night, the synchronised detectors planted on his island home met silence. Without intending to, scientists had captured the last call of a species, made on its last night in existence: August 26, 2009.

Read the rest of the article here.

Devil in the detail: Zoos Victoria CEO Jenny Gray watches as keeper Monika Zabinskas holds Milana, a one-year-old - and healthy - Tasmanian devil. Photo: Joe Armao