9 February 2025
The Easter Bilby – Australia’s Alternative Take on a Tradition
A chocolate what? If you live outside of Australia the chances are you have never heard a child – your own or one belonging to others - plead (in that excruciating tone they most often use to maximise the efficiency of their demand) “Mum! Muuuuum! I want an Easter Bilby. Give me an Easter Bilby!”.
Why the usurpation of the rabbit as the predominant paschal proxy? Are they out of favor in Australia? There is more to this story than a new(ish) nation putting its own cultural stamp on an old tradition. The bunny is not native to Australia – in fact, it’s something of a nuisance to say the least. Introduced by European settlers, the rabbit quickly went feral and reproduced in numbers that even Moses would have to grudglingly acknowledge as positively Biblical. This population explosion put a lot of local fauna in jeopardy.
So rabbits are not the most popular animal down under. A bilby,
however, is the epitome of marsupial cuteness.
That long pointy snout, those big ears – adorable is hardly the
word. The chocolate version has captured
the same quirky charm.
Now, as it happens, there used to be two types of Bilby. That was one hundred percent of the entire
genus – or at least it was until the 1960s when the lesser bilby sadly became
extinct. The loss of half of a genus was
attributed at least in part to the introduction of rabbits which became feral
and soon outnumbered and outcompeted the lesser bilby for food. Bye-bye the lesser bilby. The one remaining species
(the greater bilby) is currently in decline and listed as “vulnerable”. Although
rabbit numbers are now more in control than they were in the 1960s, conservation
efforts had to be introduced in order to save the only species of bilby left. The
chocolate version came about as an attempt to raise money to help save it.
It began as a story – a junior naturalists club began the tradition
of the Easter Bilby rather than a bunny providing easter eggs in the 1970s
while the Australian National Parks Service suggested it as an alternative in
the 1980s. In the 1990s the Foundation for
Rabbit-Free Australia also promoted the idea of the Eater Bilby. Members of the foundation felt that the bilby
– a true Australian native, around for approximately 15 million years – was more
of an appropriate Easter image for young Ozzie minds than the rabbit (on the
continent for about 200 years).
It wasn’t until the 1990s that the idea of a chocolate bilby
for Easter came about. They were sold at
the Warrawong Sanctuary ( a wildlife reserve in the state of South
Australia) which was the site of a successful breeding program. A while later, chocolate
manufacturers adopted the bilby, with some donating money from every sale
towards bilby conservation. This has
raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for various projects,
including the construction of a 10 mile predator-proof fence in Currawinya
National Park back in 2003.
Although precise population numbers are difficult to
estimate, ongoing conservation efforts play a vital role in monitoring and
preserving bilby populations in both protected areas and the wild. So, every cent raised for the Save the Bilby
fund helped preserve this cute marsupial from extinction.
Yet, even the chocolate bilby at one point was at risk of
extinction. In 2012, a major Australian
chocolate manufacturer closed its stores.
Although the company was saved, the decision was made not to produce the
Easter Bilby any longer. Likewise,
another major manufacturer discontinued the production of the munchy marsupial
in 2019. Yet, in 2022 the first
manufacturer started to make chocolate bilbies again, ensuring that funds would
continue to go to the Save the Bilby fund.
So, once more the Easter Bilby can be seen at stores
throughout Australia. We can only hope
that its continued popularity helps raise awareness for the conservation of the
bilby, ensuring its protection and survival for generations to come.
