ENDANGERED southern brown bandicoots have been thrown a lifeline after being reintroduced to The Briars in Mt Martha in the hope of increasing its numbers to the peninsula.
The small nocturnal marsupial has few populations remaining in southeastern Australia due to habitat loss, predation by introduced species, and changes to the landscape. But the relocation initiative at The Briars wildlife sanctuary has given hope of safeguarding its future on the peninsula, which hasn’t seen any known populations for at least two decades.
The milestone project is being led by PhD student John Black, and jointly supported by The University of Melbourne and independent research organisation, Cesar Australia. It has so far seen eight bandicoots relocated from Gippsland and Koo Wee Rup to The Brairs, which Black said would allow a “population that is well-adapted to the local area, but also with a lot of genetic diversity to help them keep adapting as climate and environment inevitably change around them”.
Funding for the initiative has been provided by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, through the Melbourne Strategic Assessment program. The Briars team is also working with Deakin University whose researchers are studying the impact that bandicoots have on soil health, and fungal and plant communities.
Mayor Cr Anthony Marsh congratulated The Briars team saying they had “worked hard over many years to prepare the wildlife sanctuary for the return of bandicoots, including ensuring no rabbits nor foxes inhabit the area”.
“Southern brown bandicoots play a critical role as ecosystem engineers with their digging and foraging improving soil health and spreading fungal spores, which are critical to the health of native trees,” he said.
Dr Jodi Vermaas of the Australian Conservation Foundation Mornington, whose group advocates and raises awareness to protect bandicoots, expressed her excitement about the species’ relocation. “It’s amazing if it is released into the sanctuary so that we can get a population again here on the Mornington Peninsula,” she said.
“The aim would be to create bio links through which the bandicoots could travel back to Greens Bush, which was a stronghold and is a very large area of natural suitable habitat. “We would really be excited to see it making its way back into that area where it was historically found. “It is early beginnings, but we would love to see it throughout all of the national parks and state parks across the Mornington Peninsula and those bio links are really critical for that happening.”
The reintroduction is part of The Briars Ark Program, which works to renew locally endangered and extinct species to The Briars. If successful, it will be the second threatened species returned to The Briars with the former being a critically endangered Mount Martha Bundy, a species of eucalypt found in small pockets on the peninsula.
First published in the Mornington News – 3 December 2024
