The inaugural ANiMOZ Aussie Wildlife Vote has ended, with the Pygmy bluetongue being voted in to the Booster Packs in top position.

After 31 days, 4000 votes, 30 species and tight competition, the three animals to make the first official ANiMOZ Booster Packs have been decided by the public from across Australia: the Pygmy bluetongue is joined by the Purple-crowned fairy wren and the Mallee emu-wren!

Finishing in a close 4th and 5th spot were the Gouldian finch and the Eastern bristlebird.

This has been a fantastic experience, and I wanted to share with you all the outcome of the vote with a quick recap. You did, after all, put up with my daily LinkedIn spamming of the beautiful species taking part.

BIRDLIFE

Zoos SA, the organisation behind the bluetongue and the emu-wren nominations, did a fantastic push to their members in the closing weeks to surge up the leaderboard. The winning reptile, however was the odd one out in the top 5, as AWC's fairywren finished in second.

This came after Save the Gouldian Fund and Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary had made strong starts to the vote, leading for the first 3 weeks. Throughout the month, they would only be separated by a handful of votes, switching positions almost daily, and finishing on 295 votes (Gouldian finch) to 289 (Eastern bristlebird)!

A CLOSE RACE

Halfway through it was relatively even across the board, but Australian Wildlife Conservancy - who had nominated both the fairywren and the Northern bettong - began to focus on this special little bird, which saw them push into the lead with a week to go.

Gradually, however, Zoos SA reeled them in. A final day flurry for the Pygmy bluetongue put some space between first and second spot, with 417 votes to the fairywren's 388, and the emu-wren's 333.

One of the inspiring stories from the first Aussie Wildlife Vote was that of the smaller groups involved, who came so close to getting their nomination into the top 3: Wombat Awareness (Southern hairy-nosed wombat, 204 votes); Manta Trust (Reef manta ray, 193); Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation (Red-tailed black-cockatoo, 140); KI/Victor Harbor Dolphin Watch (Common bottlenose dolphin, 130); and Team Kowari (Kowari, 127).

That list could be much longer.

GETTING READY FOR THE BOOSTERS

It's been an exciting - and hectic - month, and I'm thrilled to officially announce that the Pygmy bluetongue, the Purple-crowned fairywren and the Mallee emu-wren will all have a spot in the upcoming Booster Packs.

Most importantly, however, the organisations who took part in this vote do incredible work to save the endangered native species of Australia from disappearing forever.

So thank you to them, and I encourage you to go check out their websites and socials, and support them where possible.

Thanks to everyone involved in what was an amazing first ANiMOZ Aussie Wildlife Vote. Keep an eye out on the website for our species profiles on the 3 winners, coming soon.