Hobart Greens alderman Bill Harvey is asking council for an extra special effort for this year’s Threatened Species Day on September 7th and will move at Monday’s council meeting, that a report be prepared with regard to organising a special event and a series of activities to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the death of the last know Tasmanian tiger on the 7th of September 1936 at the Hobart zoo.
As this is the 75th year, council should make an extra effort to commemorate the sad loss of the Tassie tiger with a series of events to raise awareness about threats to other vulnerable species said Alderman Harvey.
Alderman Harvey wants the community to reflect on the huge loss of species since European settlement of Australia, which so far includes 27 mammal species, 23 bird species, 4 frog species and at least 49 plant species.
But, more importantly, he suggests, we need to pay attention to the growing list of threatened and endangered species that are still vulnerable to land clearing, habitat loss and fragmentation, over grazing, salinity, changed fire regimes and pollution.
Alderman Harvey believes that now, the greatest threats to biodiversity are climate change, the spread of introduced plant and animal species and the growing threat to marine and seabird species from ingestion of toxic plastic pollution in the oceans.
The death of the last known Tasmanian tiger 75 years ago needs to be commemorated and provides a fitting opportunity for council to raise public awareness to the major issues that effect biodiversity.
