WA sends western barred bandicoots to South Australia

22/9/00
Twenty five Western Barred Bandicoots from Western Australia will be the first to be translocated across State borders when they reach South Australia on Monday morning.
South Australian and Western Australian Environment Ministers, Iain Evans and Cheryl Edwardes, said the bandicoots from Bernier Island in the World Heritage-listed Shark Bay area, will be transferred by the WA Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM).
The bandicoots will make the pioneering trek across the border to be part of the Arid Recovery Project at Roxby Downs in the South Australian outback. The project is run jointly by WMC Resources, National Parks and Wildlife South Australia, the University of Adelaide and the local community.
The last time the nocturnal mammal was seen in the wild on Australia's mainland was in Rawlinna, WA, in 1929.
Mrs Edwardes said she was delighted the State could help with the relocation.
"This is the first attempt to re-establish a population outside Western Australia," she said.
The bandicoots will be taken from Bernier Island by CALM research scientists and Arid Recovery Project staff on September 24 and transported immediately to South Australia. They will be set free in a 14 sq. km rabbit, cat and fox-proof enclosure during the night.
Mrs Edwardes said they would be fitted with radio collars and tracked daily. After one month, researchers from the Arid Recovery Project would recapture the bandicoots to monitor their health and progress.
"The food eaten by Western Barred Bandicoots - berries, seeds, insects and roots - is found naturally in Roxby Downs so
we're confident this project will be a huge success," she said.
Scientific evidence suggests the Western Barred Bandicoot became extinct on the mainland because of altered fire regimes, land clearing, grazing by sheep and rabbits and predation by introduced animals such as the European fox and feral cat that were 'killing machines' when it came to the State's native wildlife.
South Australia's Environment and Heritage Minister Iain Evans said that the Western Barred Bandicoots formerly had a wide distribution in South Australia.
"Records show that the bandicoots had a South Australian distribution range from the edge of the Nullarbor Plain to the River Murray, and bones have been found in sub-fossil deposits near Roxby Downs, which suggests the species was once common in South Australia," he said.
The bandicoots will be joined by up to 20 boodies (burrowing bettongs) that will be added to the 10 successfully relocated to Roxby Downs last year.
"The translocation of the bandicoots is hot on the heels of the successful release of Bilbies at Roxby Downs in April. Along with similar projects such as Ark on Eyre on the Eyre Peninsula and Flinders Ranges Bounceback in the Flinders Ranges, species are being re-established across South Australia," Mr Evans said.
"I congratulate the Roxby Downs community, and the Friends of the Arid Recovery Project, for the way they have embraced this venture.
"Projects such as this will help reintroduce species that have become locally extinct and ultimately return creatures to large tracts of land they originally inhabited."
Media contacts:
Minister Edwardes: Steve Manchee on 9421 7777
Minister Evans: Jon Parrington on 8303 2129
NOTE: Footage of Western Barred Bandicoots can be obtained by contacting Sue McKenna in CALM Corporate Relations on 9389 8644