Keeper Girls project is called "Wombat Dream Project Vol. 2".
The catalyst of the project was the donation of the song, "Song of Wombat", from Mitsuhiko Takano, a composer, to Ikeda city in November 2014.
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"Song of wombat". Originally sung by Yoko Takaoka, not Keeper Girls. |
Satsukiyama Zoo is the 2nd smallest zoo in all zoos belonging to Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA), but in 1992, the zoo accomplished the first breeding of wombat out of Australia.
As of 2015, the zoo has experience of keeping 7 wombats: 5 wombats are from Launceston, Tasmania, Australia (Link to Launceston City Council), the sister city of Ikeda; 2 wombats were born in the zoo.
As of 2015, 3 wombats live in the zoo: 2 wombats were born in 1989 and are very old; but one male wombat, named "Fuku", was born in 2004 and is reproductive.
However, in Japan, let alone in the zoo, there are no reproductive female wombats. You can easily predict that there will be no wombat in Japan, let alone in the zoo, in the near future.
Kozo Sejima, the vice president of Satsukiyama Zoo, thought that if someone sang the song, Satsukiyama Zoo were strongly appealed and that contributed to invite a young female wombat into the zoo [1].
Therefore, this idol project is called "Wombat Dream Project Vol. 2".
The missions of Keeper Girls are follows:
As well, the former project "Wombat Dream Project" was to demonstrate to make the skeletal preparation of the wombat, named "Satsuki", first born in Japan and dead in the zoo, in order to leave the wombat in the future [2].
since Nov 8, 2015.