What's the one sure-fire way to save an animal from extinction?
Turn it into a pet, says Michael Archer, director of the
Australian Museum in Sydney. With many of the country's native
animals in serious trouble, he wants Australians to stop
canoodling with dogs and cats and cuddle a quoll or a possum
instead. Besides, says Archer, native animals are kinder to the
environment-and a lot more fun. Stephanie Pain meets the man
with a mission to make you love marsupials. Why should
Australians swap their traditional pets for native animals?
Australia is fundamentally different from every other continent
and it's filled with unique animals. Since Europeans arrived,
native species have been disappearing almost as fast as those
obliterated by the last great mass extinction 65 million years
ago. And what we lose here, the whole world loses. Traditional
methods of conservation clearly aren't enough, so we have to
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