MONTREAL -- Granby Zoo's campaign to assist Australia's efforts in helping the country's wildlife devastated by raging fires well exceeded its goal within a week of the campaign being launched.
The Granby Zoo Foundation will donate over $100,000 to the cause after it raised over $80,000 from a Facebook fundraiser that was asking for $60,000. The foundation will chip in an extra $20,000.
The money will go to the Bushfire Emergency Wildlife Fund, which funds emergency veterinary care and scientific intervention such as feeding animals whose habitats have been destroyed.
The wildlife fun says an estimated 500 million animals including critically endangered speices have perished in the bushfires.
Those wanting to donate can do so at the fund's page.
The fires in Australia have killed at least 29 people and destroyed more than 2,500 homes.
Below is a list of the 27 Australian animals Zoos Victoria is fighting to protect:
- Alpine She-oak Skink
- Baw Baw Frog
- Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby
- Eastern Barred Bandicoot
- Giant Burrowing Frog
- Golden-rayed Blue Butterfly
- Grassland earless Dragon
- Guthega Skink
- Helmeted Honeyeater
- Key's Matchstick Grasshopper
- Large Brown Tree Frog
- Leadbeater's Possum
- Lord Howe Island Stick Insect
- Mallee Emu-wren
- Mountain Pygmy-possum
- New Holland Mouse
- Northern Corroboree Frog
- Orange-bellied Parrot
- Plains-wanderer
- Regent Honeyeater
- Smoky Mouse
- Southern Bent-wing Bat
- Southern Corroboree Frog
- Spotted Tree Frog
- Stuttering Barred Frog
- Swift Parrot
- Tasmanian Devil
