BIODIVERSITY DISCOVERIES
Book Review: Hatch
Written and illustrated by Heidi Cooper Smith
Reviewed by Vincent (Age 7.5)
This book is about animals that hatch out of their eggs. It is both a picture book and a fact book.
I recommend Hatch for 5 or 6-year-olds. It is a good book, and my favourite part is the first page about the same animal on the front cover: a Sea Turtle! I also liked the page with a picture of a green tree frog. The artwork is creative and realistic.
The book made me feel sad about how much people litter and how bad it is for the forest. But it also made me feel happy about all the animals in the world.
I like the story. I like it a lot. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
Forest fairy possum discovered in NSW!
Leadbeater’s Possums, sometimes known as “forest fairies” for being hard to find, were thought to be extinct when they were rediscovered in Victoria in 1961. Today the Victorian population of “fairy possums” is critically endangered, with most of its habitat lost to logging and development.
It was thought to be the only population in Australia, but in good news, a Leadbeater’s possum has been spotted in NSW on camera footage from Kosciuszko National Park. Now the search is on for more of these tiny possums in NSW, and efforts to conserve the Victorian possums continue.
Find out more about the Leadbeater’s Possum
Did you know?
These tiny possums are about the length of a ruler, including a tail about 15cm long! And they weigh roughly 100–165gm: that’s less than an apple!
See some of the NSW camera footage
eDNA detective work
An estuary is a partly enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. Researchers recently compiled the largest publicly available biodiversity dataset for NSW estuaries.
“Together with Indigenous rangers from six language groups, we surveyed 34 estuaries to capture evidence of living species – everything from microbes to fish, plants and mammals.”
Among the research methods they used was collecting environmental DNA (eDNA) to identify plant and species present in different locations.
More work needed on plastic bans
An apple a day can be good for your health, but it is also bad for the environment in some ways…
A 2024 government report found that each year 5.62 billion plastic labels are picked off fruit and vegetables in Australia! These cannot be recycled or composted and often end up polluting the environment.
SA was to be the 1st Australian state to implement a ban this year, but it has delayed the transition.
So what are the alternatives to plastic fruit and vege stickers?
Fruit “tattoo” labels lasered on to skin or peel are being trialled by producers and supermarkets in Europe. NSW is proposing to require compostable stickers from 2030. Until then try to buy fruit and vege that does not have the stickers (eg from farmers’ markets) and make sure any stickers go into landfill waste.