By Travis Scicchitano | Threatened Species Officer
It’s been a long time since we posted an update on how our grassland and eastern barred bandicoot sanctuary is going. I’m glad to say we can give you some exciting news on multiple fronts. There have been plenty of developments that will enhance the sanctuary and help us improve biodiversity into the future.
Firstly, let’s talk bandicoots! We had our first biannual monitoring session this year in May. Our numbers continue to grow, and the overall health of the animals is pleasing. They passed their physical check-ups without any concerns and were discovered all across the 235 Hectare reserve, which is pleasing.
We caught 56 in total over three days!
This number is reduced to 43 unique individuals as some were caught multiple times. Most likely as they got the taste for our yummy peanut butter balls to lure them into the traps! There was a nice balance of males to females and plenty of pouch young were seen as well. So, plenty of little ones on the way out of the pouch to explore their new home.
The other exciting news is we have worked with our partners at DEECA to secure funding to upgrade the sanctuary predator fence. The current fence is over 30 years old and not the best design for keeping the pesky foxes at bay. This new fence is the most modern and up to date design in predator control.
This time we have chosen a fence that will keep the pests out but also keep the animals in that we want. This means that we are looking to add more local grassland threatened species into the sanctuary to live alongside our bandicoots. These are very excitingtimes, and we are currently undertaking a study to see what new animals will be most suitable to include.
This fence will also enable us to take care of threatened wildlife that has been affected but Australia’s harsh bushfires. We will house threatened species until their habitat returns so we can safely return them to their original habitat. We have currently built 3.3 kilometres of the 6.4 required. A few more months of construction to go.
This new adventure is going to continuously require maintenance, for us to be extremely flexible and fleet footed when situations arrive. So, any help and assistance that you afford us will be greatly appreciated and help us go a long way to the exciting challenges that lie ahead.
Thanks to Parks Victoria, CVA team and all the wonderful volunteers.
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