Once found across 70% of the Australian mainland, the Greater Bilby plays a crucial role in the environment. A single bilby can dig and turn over massive amounts of soil a year. This act helps to enrich soils and allows seeds generate, and Bilby burrows also provide a home for other small native animals.  

Introduced species like cats and foxes and human impact has driven dwindling bilby populations into tiny, fragmented pockets in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. With only 10,000 individuals left in the wild, things are looking dire for these Aussie icons. 

When we lose the bilby from our local habitats, it can have a devastating effect on other species. 

Taronga is working in partnership with conservation organisations across Australia to bring Bilbies back from the brink of extinction. 

Located behind Taronga Western Plains Zoo, the Sanctuary is a special 110ha predator-proof facility that provides a safe haven for native species. The purpose of the Sanctuary is breed endangered animals in preparation for release back into the wild. Here, Bilby’s live autonomously, learning to forage and burrow and find mates.  

Our Conservation program selects healthy and genetically robust animals for release back into the wild, helping support wild populations and return them to their former range.  

Since 2020, we’ve released bilbies successfully back into Sturt National Park in NSW, and Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary in the Northern Territory. 
Your help today can help us continue to return bilbies back to their former homes. 

Your gift will be critical to building back healthy bilby populations – large enough to survive future threats.
Your support:

• could help cover the costs of health checks, to make sure Sanctuary raised bilbies are fit and ready to thrive after their release.
• could help equip the conservation team with the equipment and cameras needed to monitor bilbies before and after their release.  
• could go towards genetic research to give bilbies and other Sanctuary-bred species the best chance of building sustainable populations in the wild.

Taronga’s Greater Bilby breeding program is a lifeline for Australia’s last surviving wild bilby – and for so many more struggling native species. 

This is one of Taronga’s most ambitious projects, and one that requires intensive and ongoing investment. 

Please, donate today to help our Greater Bilby survive and thrive in Australia this year, and another hundred after that.