The theory.
Animals need homes. Plants create habitat in which animals live, find food, and hide from their predators.
But habitat is being lost everyday, through fragmentation, degradation, and climate-driven natural disasters such as bushfires.
What if we could help?
Cover is key.
Small, ground-dwelling animals - such as bandicoots, antechinus, potoroos, and native rodents - are heavily reliant on the cover provided by dense, groundstory vegetation.
Think: dense patches of bracken-fern, or thick swathes of lomandra, or the large skirts of dead fronds under grass trees.
This dense vegetation cover provides our wildlife with places to sleep, to den and nest, and perhaps most importantly of all, to hide from their predators.
In Australia, we have lost more than 30 species of unique, endemic small-to-medium sized mammals in the last 250 years. Some of the remaining species are hanging on by a thread - and are almost exclusively found in predator-free sanctuaries, or in the most dense, inaccessible habitats, where their predators have trouble finding them.
Bushfires, logging, clearing, and other disasters remove ground-level vegetation cover, leaving ground-dwelling wildlife vulnerable and exposed.
Tree planting, bush regeneration, and revegetation projects plant future habitat, but wildlife can be left without short-term shelter.
ReHabitat is here to help.
Our biodegradable cardboard habitat units - the classic ReHabitat Pod and the ReHabitat Plant Pod - can be deployed after a disaster or habitat disturbance to support surviving wildlife in the immediate aftermath, or as part of a bush regeneration, native revegetation, or ecological restoration project to supply wildlife with interim habitat while seedlings grow.
These pop-up emergency shelters provide cover for wildlife in denuded, bare landscapes - whether due to fires, floods, natural disasters, or other causes. Research suggests that more wildlife die in the immediate aftermath of bush fires than in fires themselves. The same is likely true in other scenarios where habitat has been destroyed. ReHabitat pods provide hiding places for wildlife, while confusing predators and making it harder for them to find and catch their prey.
The result? Wildlife stand a fighting chance!
In a similar way, freshly planted native tube-stock encased in plastic sheaths or corflute tree guards provide no habitat for local wildlife. Many native animals use invasive weeds as habitat, and can be displaced when they are removed for ecological restoration or bush regeneration purposes. While replacing weeds with natives is great, the immediate effects on local wildlife can be underestimated, and the native tube-stock will take from years to decades to grow into healthy dense habitat.
ReHabitat Plant Pods are designed to replace plastic tree guards with a biodegradable option that is far sturdier than its competitors, with the added benefit of providing immediate habitat for small wildlife.
From day one of planting, bugs, spiders, reptiles, birds, and small mammals can take up residence in a Plant Pod, and Plant Pods are good for plants too!