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a small brown furred mouse like marsupial
Conservationists were ‘jumping for joy’ when they discovered a dunnart in a new location, after bushfire on Kangaroo Island destroyed 90% of the marsupials’ habitat. Photograph: Peter Hammond/Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife
Conservationists were ‘jumping for joy’ when they discovered a dunnart in a new location, after bushfire on Kangaroo Island destroyed 90% of the marsupials’ habitat. Photograph: Peter Hammond/Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife

Hopes of saving Kangaroo Island dunnart raised after endangered marsupial captured on camera

This article is more than 3 years old

Bushfires reduced numbers from 500 to 50 but newly discovered populations are cause for optimism, conservationists say

Hopes that Kangaroo Island’s unique mouse-like dunnart can be saved from extinction have been boosted after the tiny marsupial was captured on camera at a new location.

More than 90% of the threatened Kangaroo Island dunnart’s habitat was burned in bushfires in early January.

Now conservationists are focusing efforts on an unburnt patch and are working around the clock to set sensor cameras, build protective tunnels and trap feral cats that have moved into the area in the island’s west.

New sensor cameras have detected dunnarts at three locations on a 222-hectare private property in the north-west of the island – one of 10 properties that are part of the unburnt area that’s only a few thousand hectares.

Ecologist Heidi Groffen, of Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife, said the unburnt patch was “incredibly important” for the future of the species and she was “jumping for joy” when the cameras spotted the dunnarts.

“These images prove that this property is supporting a dunnart population,” she said. “It’s exciting and a credit to farm fire units and firefighters that this critical habitat escaped the flames, as surrounding properties to the south, east and west were badly burned.”

Darren Grover, of WWF-Australia, which funded the new camera traps, said: “This is a species that won’t survive without a helping hand.

Feral cats pose a threat to the endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart and other small mammals and birds. Photograph: Pat Hodgens/Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife

“That’s why it’s so important to monitor and manage threats in these few sites that are providing a refuge for the remaining dunnarts.”

The Kangaroo Island Dunnart – weighing only about 25 grams – was already critically endangered before the fires, with estimates there were fewer than 500 remaining. But after the fire, Griffin says this number may be as low as 50.

After the fires, Groffen says that feral cats moved into the unburnt areas and were now a key threat to the dunnart’s survival.

“We now have cat traps open that surround this bushland and a full-time staff member just working to trap them. I don’t think the cats were hit at all by the fires. We’ve caught more than 30 around one fence line at Western River.

“Considering that property had been managed for cats, it shows how the cats survived and are on the move looking for unburnt areas. This cat control is our number one priority. One cat could wipe out a whole population.”

Cats that are caught are euthanised, Groffen said, and their stomachs examined for clues about what species they have been preying on.

At the same time, small protective tunnels with entrances too small for cats and other predators like raptors and goannas have been installed to give a refuge to dunnarts and other threatened species. The camera traps have also caught the dunnarts using the tunnels.

Dunnarts are elusive creatures that live in burrows. Groffen admitted that even though she had been working to protect them for three years, she has still only ever seen one on a camera image.

But she said they were hoping to secure more funds to be able to trap and tag dunnarts to give ecologists more information about their numbers and where they might be.

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