New home for Australian red-tailed phascogales

Males die after their first mating season

June 2010: The reintroduction of 20 red-tailed phascogales into Kojonup Reserve in South-West Australia at the end of last represents another step towards preserving the endangered animal's future. Twelve females and eight males were released into the reserve as part of the Threatened Fauna Ark Project.

The peculiar mouse-sized creature have bizarre mating habits, and Australia's Department of Conservation officer Gareth Watkins said it was important for the animals to be translocated before mating began in July, as red-tailed phascogale males die at the conclusion of their first - and very brief - mating season.

‘Males exhaust much of their energy reserves during the frenetic mating season and as a result, promptly die at the age of about eleven and a half months, while females can live up to three years and can reproduce two or three times during this period,' Mr Watkins said.

‘The wild animals were trapped at various DEC reserves in the Wheatbelt and released into wooden nesting boxes positioned in trees in Kojonup Reserve, which is managed by Bush Heritage Australia.

Habitat loss is a serious threat
‘Red-tailed phascogales are restricted to isolated fragments of vegetation in the southern Wheatbelt, and are at serious threat due to habitat loss, altered fire regimes, predation and reduced rainfall.

‘Red-tailed phascogales are restricted to isolated fragments of vegetation in the southern Wheatbelt, and are at serious threat due to habitat loss, altered fire regimes, predation and reduced rainfall
‘The translocation site is one of the largest intact remnants of Wandoo woodland in the region, so there's a good chance that we'll be able to re-establish a large, self-sustaining population of the species within its former habitat.'


Nocturnal carnivores can leap up to two metres
Bush Heritage Australia ecologist Angela Sanders said the next 12 months would be spent closely monitoring the nesting sites and managing the reserve to maximise the animals' chances of survival.

‘What we do on the ground is imperative to the survival of our new residents on Kojonup Reserve, and this will include feral animal control, particularly fox baiting,' Ms Sanders said.

Red-tailed phascogales are nocturnal carnivores that live in trees and forage in the canopy and on the ground, and can leap up to two metres. The young are raised in tree hollows and stumps.

The translocated animals are being radio-tracked for the first two weeks by DEC, and during spring the nesting boxes will be checked for activity and hopefully reproduction success. Long term monitoring will be undertaken by Bush Heritage Australia.