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Australian conservationists put dollar figure on saving endangered species

Xinhua, March 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

An Australian conservation society has, for the first time, put a dollar figure on the cost of saving 20 species from extinction - ranging from 23,500 U.S dollars for the Eastern Quoll and up to 3.35 million U.S dollars for Leadbeater's Possum and the Helmeted Honeyeater.

Zoos Victoria has released a five-year conservation master plan which estimates that over 23.5 million U.S dollars is required to save all 20 animals on its endangered list, with some species requiring millions of dollars to be spent on habitat restoration and the creation of breeding facilities.

The list includes native Victorian animals, as well as some from around Australia and around the world.

Saving the tiny, yellow-and-black-striped Southern Corroboree Frog, for example, would cost 2.9 million U.S dollars over five years, while the Lord Howe Island stick insect would need 366,000 U.S dollars to avoid extinction.

Making the list from outside of Australia is the critically- endangered Philippine Crocodile and Grevy's Zebra from Northern Kenya.

But Zoos Victoria's ambitious plan might need to be put on hold, after it revealed it can only contribute 7.8 million U.S dollars toward the strategy.

The director of wildlife conservation and science at Zoos Victoria, Rachel Lowry said that the money would be spread around many initiatives aimed at increasing the population of endangered animals.

"We are not relying on just breeding animals and putting them out in the wild and hoping that will do the job ... there is a lot of innovation in the plan," Lowry said.

Some animals on the list could potentially be extinct already, but Zoos Victoria would channel the money into searching for any survivors of the species.

As a result, the list focused on species that were facing extinction within a decade.

Zoos Victoria said the five-year plan was created so that potential donors know the overall needs of saving a species, after it was revealed that contributors get "donor fatigue" after being asked to give smaller, yearly donations. Endi