The brush-tailed bettong population on the Yorke Peninsula is continuing to grow, with 73 bettongs flown in from Western Australia and released into their new home in the Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park.
Key points:
- Last year 36 bettongs were translocated and 40 more were translocated in 2021
- Bettongs can breed every 120 days
- Other species like the southern brown bandicoot will be brought into Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park
The project is called Marna Banggara and its purpose is to restore bettongs to the peninsula after they became locally extinct.
Forty-nine male and 24 female bettongs were collected from a wild population in Dryandra National Park, 180km south-east of Perth.
The bettongs were given health checks and many were fitted with tracking devices on their tails before being released at night.
Thriving in their new home
Project manager Max Barr said these bettongs were genetically diverse and it would increase their chances of survival, just like the previous cohort of translocated bettongs.
"You want the ones that are predator-savvy, you want the ones that know how to survive the seasons, and you want the ones that know how to forage for food," Mr Barr said.
"The bettongs here are surviving, they're breeding, and what we're seeing in the last round of monitoring is about 85 animals on hand.
"Half of them were born here and that's a really good sign, and of all the animals we caught last monitoring period, more than 98 per cent of the females had pouch young."
An important key for native ecosystem
Darren Grover, the head of regenerative country at WWF-Australia, said the habitat loss and the presence of foxes and feral cats led to the bettong's extinction on the Yorke Peninsula.
"More than 99 per cent of bettongs have gone, and in the wild they're only found in a couple of places in south-western Australia and a couple of offshore islands in South Australia," Mr Grover said.
"Bettongs have important ecological functions and they're what I like to call constant gardeners.
"They are constantly digging, scratching and turning over the leaf litter and the soil which is really important as it allows moisture to penetrate right down to the roots of plants.
"One of these little animals will move over four tonnes of soil and leaf litter each year."
Ryan Humphries, a representative of the Noongar Gnaala Karla Booja people, said it was a special moment to see the bettongs relocated.
"When they're feeding, they're like a little plough, so they're the ones that regenerate the seeds from native plants," he said.
"You can see the Traditional Owners are so happy and pleased to see them here roam around on Narungga country."