Holiday Program : Bear to the Rescue - FREE Event

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Posted 2025-09-11 by Elaine ⇒ follow

Wed 24 Sep 2025

Meet a real-life conservationist and be inspired to protect koalas.

Children between the ages of four and nine are invited to come along for a live book reading with Dr Romane Cristescu, a veterinarian turned conservation scientist, whose passion for wildlife has taken her on an incredible journey with her amazing dog, named Bear.

Meet Bear, the very clever detection dog - Image: www.eventbrite.com.au

Dr Romane is the director of Detection Dogs for Conservation at the University of the Sunshine Coast, where she leads a team of dedicated researchers plus five clever dogs! Together, they are pioneering ways to protect koalas and other native species. From training dogs to sniffing out koala scats (poo), to using drones and thermal cameras and even Bluetooth ear tags for citizen science, Dr Romane’s work is as inspiring as it is innovative.

Children will absolutely love Dr Romane’s second book called Bear to the Rescue. Believing that kindness and curiosity are the best tools for protecting nature, the FREE Holiday Program: Bear to the Rescue event is a celebration of both.

Whether you are a young reader, an animal lover, or a future scientist, the Bear to the Rescue event is your opportunity to hear Bear's story, meet a real-life conservationist and be inspired to protect koalas.

Bear and his friends - Image: Detection Dogs for Conservation FB

The Holiday Program: Bear to the Rescue activity is part of Save the Koala Month at the Arts and Ecology Centre at Maroochy Regional Bushland Botanic Garden. Visit the Clinging to Hope display weekdays between the 9th and 24th September to learn more about koala conservation in our region.

Suitable for children aged 4 to 9 years, all children must be accompanied by a caregiver who is required to stay, but does not need a ticket.

On the same day, the FREE Holiday Program: Bear to the Rescue will be followed by the Holiday Program: Meet the Animals, hosted by Geckoes Wildlife from 10.00am to 11.30am. Meet the Animals’ registration is only $5 per child. Online booking for Meet the Animals can be done by following this highlighted link.

Both of these Holiday Program sessions are proudly supported by Sunshine Coast Council's Environmental Visitor Centres.

Because they can smell what we can’t see, dogs are used in conservation to track and help rescue rare animals such as koalas, quolls and masked owls, to detect pest species, and locate threatened native plants - Image: www.eventbrite.com.au