Help is only a phone call away: Kyabram Fauna Park, Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Werribee Open Range Zoo are collecting old phones to support wild gorilla conservation. Every mobile phone collected by Zoos Victoria helps generate funds to support the work of Gorilla Doctors
Photo by
Jo Howell
It’s tempting to switch your old mobile phone whenever a new model arrives. So, Kyabram Fauna Park is now providing a sustainable and responsible way to dispose ditched devices.
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Kyabram Fauna Park is the latest destination providing a collection bin to donate old mobile phones for recycling. The Park joins Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Werribee Open Range Zoo in collecting old phones to support wild gorilla conservation.
Zoos Victoria Community Conservation Campaigner Peter Lancaster said funds raised through the recycling and repurposing of donated mobile devices go towards the life-saving medical care of fragile, wild gorilla populations in Africa.
“Every mobile phone collected by Zoos Victoria helps generate funds to support the work of Gorilla Doctors,” Mr Lancaster said.
“They are the only organisation in the world dedicated to saving endangered Mountain gorillas and critically endangered Eastern lowland gorillas through veterinary medicine and science.
“We’ve managed to collect more than 180,000 mobile phones since the campaign launched in 2009 and that’s raised just over $300,000 for gorilla conservation.”
Collection point: Campaspe shire people visiting the Kyabram Fauna Park, or any of the four Zoos Victoria sites, can now donate their mobile phones and other electronic devices to help fund vital conversation work for endangered animals.
There are four sub-species of gorillas that are native to Africa. All are impacted by illegal poaching and habitat destruction from logging and mining of Coltan – a metallic ore mineral used in most mobile devices and other electronic devices.
“The best thing you can do is use your phone, or any technological device, for as long as possible,” Mr Lancaster said.
“When you do need a new phone, you can help wild gorillas by recycling your old phone through Zoos Victoria’s They’re Calling On You program.“
Visitors to Kyabram Fauna Park can drop off their old mobile phones in a specially designed collection bin, which is located in the Park’s cafe.
Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo are home to seven Western lowland Gorillas, who form part of an international and regional breeding program to maintain a genetically diverse troop that can support the conservation of gorilla populations.
For more information about Zoos Victoria’s They’re Calling On You initiative, visit www.zoo.org.au/phone
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