{"id":463683,"date":"2026-02-07T04:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/463683\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T04:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:25:14","slug":"golden-bandicoot-numbers-triple-at-newhaven-wildlife-sanctuary-in-central-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/463683\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden bandicoot numbers triple at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary in Central Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A population of the threatened golden bandicoot has tripled in two and a half years at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, north-west of Alice Springs.<\/p>\n

Newhaven ecologist Tim Henderson said the small native mammal was once extinct in the area, but new population groups from interstate reintroduced in mid-2023 had been breeding quickly.<\/p>\n

“It’s been great,” Dr Henderson said.<\/p>\n

“The translation occurred during some really good rainfall years, so the conditions out here have been great and the population has really boomed.<\/p>\n

“They’re really fast-breeding animals, they have multiple young a year and they just keep producing. So it’s a really good sign to see their population increase so rapidly.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The golden bandicoots are the seventh species to be reintroduced at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary. (ABC Alice Springs: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

About 100 golden bandicoots were released into the sanctuary as part of a conservation program two and a half years ago, but a recent survey estimates their population is now about 300.<\/p>\n

Dr Henderson said Newhaven was bordered by a 44-kilometre fence, which kept out predators like cats and dingoes.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite a lot of work to install and now maintain, but it creates a really, really large safe haven for these animals where they can grow and become their own population without the impacts of feral cats,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They can thrive in this natural landscape, which is normal to what it would have been 60 to 100 years ago.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tim Henderson says the mammal weighs about 300 grams. (ABC Alice Springs: Victoria Ellis)<\/p>\n

Cute ‘potatoes’<\/p>\n

Golden bandicoots have a short nose, a thin, stubby tail and weigh about 300 grams.<\/p>\n

Dr Henderson said a golden sheen to their fur gave them their name.<\/p>\n

“They’re very cute,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We like to call them potatoes sometimes, because they’re similar in size to a potato and they can fit in your hand nice and comfortable like a potato, so that’s sort of what their shape and size is.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Traditional custodians release the golden bandicoots into Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary in 2023. (ABC Alice Springs: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

Dr Henderson said the main goal of the conservation program was to increase the golden bandicoot’s genetic diversity and bring them back into their natural habitat.<\/p>\n

“They add a lot of value to the ecosystem by doing a lot of digging in the soil, which does a lot of turnover and promotes seed growth for vegetation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So they’re really important for the landscape and we’re just trying to restore that ecological process.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A population of the threatened golden bandicoot has tripled in two and a half years at Newhaven Wildlife…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,74022,237742,2929,237741,237743,237745,128,237744,338],"class_list":["post-463683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-breeding","tag-central-australian-animals","tag-conservation","tag-golden-bandicoots","tag-native-mammals","tag-newhaven-wildlife-sanctuary","tag-science","tag-tim-henderson","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}