Western Barred Bandicoots established and breeding at South Australia’s Arid Recovery Reserve
With FAME's help, five Western Barred Bandicoots have been successfully transferred from Faure Island off the coast of Western Australia and released at the Arid Recovery Reserve in South Australia. The new home for the Bandicoots is a fully fenced 8 ha area within the Main Reserve of Arid Recovery.
Two of the Bandicoots are males, and three females. Close monitoring found that all three females produced young within weeks of their release.
The fact that the Bandicoots are breeding so quickly is a testament to the care with which the transfer, release and living conditions for the animals was planned and carried out.
Of the four species of long-nosed bandicoots (Perameles genus) found in Australia, the Western Barred Bandicoot (P. bougainville) is the smallest. Once common across vast areas of arid and semi-arid southern Australia from the Liverpool Plains of NSW to the north-west coast of Western Australia, the arrival of Europeans with their livestock, land clearance methods and feral animal introductions led to the bandicoots' widespread decline.
In 1929 the last Western Barred Bandicoot was seen on the Australian mainland. Since then, the species has been confined to Bernier and Dorre islands in Shark Bay on the west coast of Western Australia. The total population size is less than 3000. The species is listed as endangered and appears to still be in decline. . The Western Barred Bandicoot is under threat from disease, feral cats and foxes, drought and habitat loss due to fire and rabbit/stock grazing.
Western Barred Bandicoots for the Arid Recovery Reserve have been drawn from a healthy wild population.
Donations to help this important project are needed. Please help by sending your tax deductible donation to FAME online via this secure site, or download the form and post your donation to PO Box 482 MITCHAM SA 5062.
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