Native marsupial helping revive urban bushland in Perth's north

March 26, 2019, University of Western Australia

A native marsupial population that was successfully relocated to a pocket of urban bushland in the northern suburb of Craigie is now helping to regenerate the bush.

Dr. Leonie Valentine, a research fellow with UWA's School of Biological Sciences, is leading the research project to monitor and assess the quenda, a species of bandicoot endemic to south-western WA. Quenda numbers have historically declined due to habitat loss and predation by feral and domestic animals.

Dr. Valentine said the project involved working with WA's Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions to relocate 43 quenda in 2013 after the City of Joondalup installed a predator-proof fence around Craigie bushland in 2010. Funding was provided by the National Environmental Science Programme: Threatened Species Recovery Hub.

"We've been monitoring the quenda to assess their health and measure the population and what we've found is that from the original 43 individuals, the numbers have grown and we've identified an extra 120 quenda. They're all in excellent health and they seem to be breeding well," she said.

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Endangered bandicoot 'should never have been brought to South Australia'

Researchers say the western barred bandicoot was actually five species and those ‘reintroduced’ would never have lived in SA

Lisa Cox

Tue 17 Jul 2018 01.43 BSTLast modified on Tue 17 Jul 2018 01.44 BST

An endangered Australian bandicoot that was reintroduced to the Australian mainland is now believed to be one of five distinct species, and researchers say it may have been a mistake to introduce it to South Australia.

Scientists working for the Western Australian Museum have published research that concludes that what has been known as the western barred bandicoot is in fact five distinct species – four of which had become extinct by the 1940s as a result of agriculture and introduced predators. The species were closely related but occurred in different parts of Australia.

In the 2000s, western barred bandicoots that had survived on the arid Bernier and Dorre islands off Western Australia were reintroduced to the mainland, including to a predator-proof reserve in outback South Australia.

But the new study shows the surviving species that was translocated to that part of the country would never have occurred there previously.

Lead researcher Dr Kenny Travouillon made the findings after analysing skulls and DNA from tissue from specimens held in collections in Paris and London.

Continued