As Easter approaches, chocolate is on the minds of many, but will it be a bunny or a bilby that makes its way into your home?
Proponents behind the Save the Bilby Fund want the native mammal to bounce out the introduced bunny for an Aussie Easter.
Their hopes have been bolstered by Australian confectionary manufacturer Darrell Lea, which has resumed making chocolate bilbies after eight years and pledged to donate a percentage of the profits to the fund.
It has rejoined several other manufactures, including Pink Lady and Haigh's Chocolates, which continue to distribute chocolate bilbies to raise money for a cause originally started by Rabbit-Free Australia in the early '90s.
Save the Bilby Fund chief executive officer Kevin Bradley welcomed the news.
"[It's a] fantastic thing with more people across Australia able to choose bilbies over bunnies," he said.
Money raised by the fund has supported an intensive breeding program to save the last arid bandicoot, the greater bilby, from the brink of extinction.
Its relative, the lesser bilby, is already considered extinct.
Education driving change
Australians spent an estimated $1 billion on food for Easter during 2021.
Mr Bradley said even a small slice of that market would assist his not-for-profit organisation.
He believed the growing trend of choosing a bilby chocolate over a bunny came down to "children being better educated".
"But that's changing this year.
"It's not only a huge help to our mission in saving the bilby, but recognition to all our endangered species, of which we have far, far too many."
Bilbies were believed to have inhabited Australia for up to 15 million years where they occupied 70 per cent of the mainland.
Today, however, they are considered endangered and are limited to just a few isolated locations.
Competing with rabbits
Bilbies and bunnies share more than one similarity.
The mammals both have big ears, dig burrows, and can have multiple babies in a litter, but the introduced rabbit has created significant competition to bilbies because they compete for both food and habitat.
But rabbits are not the only introduced species having an impact on the bilby population.
Feral cats and foxes are their primary predators, living across 99.9 per cent of Australia.
Feral cats and foxes kill an estimated 1.4 billion Australian mammals annually.
Mr Bradley said buying chocolate bilbies was the perfect opportunity to raise awareness for endangered animals and support the ongoing work of conservationists.
