WIMMERA residents have helped new two baby bilbies at Halls Gap Zoo.
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The bilbies – one boy and one girl – were born at the end of December and emerged from their mother’s pouch earlier this month.
The zoo ran a competition on its Facebook page, calling for people to name them.
The winning names were Banjo and Matilda, which received 256 votes.
In second place was Kimberley and Mitchell with 242 votes.
Halls Gap Zoo head of native Alisha Bunting said they asked people to suggest Australian names.
“Banjo and Matilda are perfect – you can’t get more Aussie than that,” she said.
Ms Bunting said the competition attracted a large number of entries.
“We lost track of how many in the end,” she said.
“All the keepers were following the suggestions as they came in – it was a good bit of fun.”
Ms Bunting said the bilbies were now growing like crazy.
“They don’t become independent from their mum until about three months, so they are still annoying her,” she said.
“It’s getting colder though, so they are cuddling up to each other under the heat lamp at the moment – they just look like a big ball of fluff.”
Ms Bunting said it had been a great experience watching them grow.
“We pouch checked mum and found they were there earlier in the year and then we would check her a few weeks later and be amazed how much they had grown,” she said.
“It’s been really good.”