Davey the Dunnart From Kangaroo Island

I was very excited to have my poem (hopefully PB one day!) posted on the Australian Children's Poetry website. Davey the Dunnart from Kangaroo Island is book 2 in a trilogy of picture books/poems about endangered Australian animals. Book 1, 'A Birthday Jamboree', is about Gilbert's potoroo or ngilkat, a small nocturnal marsupial that can only be found in the wild on Mount Gardner headland in Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve in Western Australia. Dunnarts or djamins, are marsupials and are much smaller than potoroos. Kangaroo Island dunnarts are classified as critically endangered due to the 2019/2020 bushfires which severely reduced the population. 

Davey the Dunnart loved to play horn. He’d play every night from dusk until dawn.
Down by the creek he would jam with his band. Their sound became famous all over the land.
 
Roo played the bass, with possum on drums, Bandicoot swung on the harmonium.
Drongo would warble a sound warm and clear, Bat’s jazz guitar was smooth to the ear.
 
They’d come from the trees, from the Mallee and swamp, to jump and to jive, to swing and to stomp,
to dance through the night right up to the morn, all dazzled, delighted by Davey’s sweet horn.
 
Then one full moon night he didn’t appear. It seemed their friend Davey had just disappeared!
The animals searched all the places they knew - his burrow, the creek and the park rangers’ shoe.
 
But Davey was nowhere. He couldn’t be found. ‘Where can he be?’ his friends wondered and frowned. 
As night turned to day a smell filled the air. The sky had turned black. A bushfire declared!
 
Thoughts of poor Davey were put to one side as everyone ran to find places to hide.
The heat was intense with many homes lost, and when it was over they counted the cost.
 
All hope had faded. Then later that night the sound of a horn was heard soft and light.
‘Could that be Davey?’ asked Roo in surprise. They ran to the creek and tears filled their eyes.
 
‘Davey!’ Bat cried as both friends embraced. ‘We thought you would never come back to this place.
We thought we would never again hear you play! We’re so glad to see you. So glad you’re okay.’
 
His heart filled with joy as the friends gathered near. Davey’s small smile now stretched ear to ear!
He hopped back on stage, picked up his horn and blew that sweet jazz from dusk until dawn.
 
Back Matter: Did you know?

1. Kangaroo Island dunnarts are small marsupials who live in grasstrees, leaf litter and small holes in the ground.
2. Their species was only discovered 50 years ago.
3. They have dark grey fur on their backs and paler grey fur on their bellies, hands and feet that are almost white, a small pointed snout and big ears.
4. Their babies are called joeys and are smaller than a grain of rice when they are born.
5. Females weigh less than a fifty-cent coin and males are about half the weight of a golf ball.
6. Their indigenous name is djamin.
7. Dunnarts are nocturnal feeders and eat mostly spiders, beetles, ants and grasshoppers.
8. Before the 2019-2020 bushfires on the island, the dunnart population was less than 500. There are now thought to be only 50 left. 
9. Feral cats and land clearance are the other two main threats to the dunnart population.
10. The Kangaroo Island dunnart is considered a critically endangered species.

For more information on the Kangaroo Island Dunnart visit these websites:
Australian Wildlife  
​FAME
 
For teaching activities follow this link

Davey the Dunnart from Kangaroo Island © Kerry Gittins 2021. All Rights Reserved.