Bringing Back the Bilbies

A bilby being released at night in their restored, but fenced, habitat

Bilbies are endangered bandicoots that once roamed over much of Australia, but whose numbers declined drastically under the combined onslaught of cats, rabbits, foxes and land clearance. One of the major achievements of the project has been the successful re-introduction of The Greater Bilby to a 5.6 square mile exclosure within the larger project area. Feral pests have been eliminated, and cat-, rabbit- and fox-proof boundary fences erected. Old mining equipment is recycled for fence posts, erosion control and information and education displays.

"At Easter we released 9 animals; 5 females and 4 males, and all our females are breeding,Õ said Katherine Moseby, coordinator of the project. "We have just seen the emergence of our second round of pouch young since the release. Basically they have been breeding continuously since then and are still going," she said. "We now estimate there are around 20 bilbies inside our site."

Bilbies have bred extremely well at Monarto Zoological Park, which has one of the largest captive breeding populations in Australia. The SA Bilby Recovery Team has successfully re-introduced some bilbies to an offshore island, and the Arid Recovery project has placed others back in a site close to the center of their original South Australian range. Accordingly, it will provide valuable opportunities for research.

"We have a summer scholarship student from Adelaide University who will be coming up this month to start a 3-month study of the bilbies," said Moseby.

The research will involve trapping the bilbies and attaching transmitters to their tails. "We already have 4 with transmitters and they are travelling throughout the exclosure and digging extensively," said Moseby. "We also someone working on their diet through scat analysis. She is finding that they are eating roots of specific plants like Boerhavia, and insects and grubs that live in the base of Hop Bush. They are even killing some of the bushes through digging at their bases till they fall over," she said.

The release of the bilbies at Easter was symbolic. The Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia developed chocolate Easter Bilbies to draw attention to this charming native marsupial, and the extent to which it has declined through competition with feral animals.

The Project has also re-introduced other species, including Burrowing Bettongs and Greater Stick-nest Rats, some of which came from the Monarto colony. There are also plans to re-introduce some birds, such as the Bush Thick-knee and the Plains Wanderer.

These ground-dwelling species have declined in the area since the removal of cover by rabbits and stock, and because of increased predation by cats and foxes. Plans to reintroduce the Sandalwood Tree are also underway. This species has declined from being over-harvested in the last 100 years.