Safeguard a Bandicoot from Extinction

It’s been an interesting season since the last update.  The summer weather decided to stick around for longer than expected.  The temperature didn’t start to drop until May, and the moisture didn’t arrive either. It has been incredibly dry. 

Why is this a concern? Our bandicoots like to dig for their preferred invertebrate diet. Without the moisture of the insects, worms don’t come to the surface and digging is incredibly hard. This was evident as there have been no sightings of diggings in the sanctuary. So, the bandicoots have been surface feeding.  This means that they would have put a pause on breeding for a while, and we witnessed that in our autumn monitoring. We caught less than the normal number of bandicoots, but that was expected. More importantly the ones that we caught were still in good health, so they have been adapting to surface feeding. The new cluster trapping design was still working well though, so we will continue on.  

On a positive note, the rain has been starting to fall, and the ground is softening up so the bandicoots will be munching away again. Volunteers have continued to be busily removing serrated tussock (invasive grass species) leading up to the winter period. This work gives our native grasses a better chance to survive and reduces fire threats as well.  

Thanks to Parks Victoria, the CVA team and all the wonderful volunteers. 

Want to know about the eastern barred bandicoot project at Woodlands Historic Park? Visit: https://conservationvolunteers.com.au/projects/help-us-save-australias-endangered-bandicoots

Links:

• Protect the Woodlands Bandicoot Sanctuary information