{"id":248468,"date":"2025-11-07T02:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T02:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248468\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T02:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T02:04:10","slug":"incredible-moment-rare-animal-returns-to-aussie-bushland-for-first-time-in-150-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248468\/","title":{"rendered":"Incredible moment rare animal returns to Aussie bushland for first time in 150 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Against all odds, one of Australia\u2019s smallest marsupials has returned to southwest NSW, more than 150 years after it was wiped out from the region. Few people alive have witnessed western barred bandicoots in the wild, because the once-widespread species likely became extinct on the mainland around 1929.<\/p>\n

Incredible footage from the non-profit group Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC)<\/a> captures two of the 20 endangered animals nervously touching their foot on the ground to reclaim their homeland. The tiny creature needs a little encouragement from a handler before it scurries away across the scrubland.<\/p>\n

The introduction of foxes and cats <\/a>by European settlers rapidly wiped out the species from its semi-arid range on mainland Australia. Today, it\u2019s also known as the Shark Bay bandicoot, because remnant populations survived on nearby Dirk Hartog and Faure islands, the westernmost point of Australia.<\/p>\n

Related: Another ‘little-known’ Aussie animal declared extinct<\/a><\/p>\n

Releasing them back into the wild in southwest NSW was only possible inside the Mallee Cliffs National Park in the state\u2019s southwest, because it contains the mainland\u2019s largest fenced-off feral-predator free sanctuary.<\/p>\n

This year, other rare animals like the long-footed potoroo<\/a> and Leadbeater\u2019s possum<\/a> have been rediscovered in areas of NSW where they were believed to be extinct. But it’s almost certain there are no naturally occurring western barred bandicoots left in the state.<\/p>\n

\"Drawings<\/p>\n

European settlers initially reported western barred bandicoots in abundance on Australia\u2019s mainland. Source: Getty<\/p>\n

Nine locally extinct species restored to former habitat<\/p>\n

The Mallee Cliffs release occurred last week through a partnership between AWC and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. There are now seven mainland populations of the species, in Western Australia, South Australia and NSW.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like an Aussie comeback story with a whole lot of heart,\u201d AWC ecologist Dr Rachel Ladd said<\/p>\n

Western barred bandicoots are the ninth species restored to Mallee Cliffs by AWC and NPWS. The others are the greater bilby, greater stick-nest rat, numbat, brush-tailed bettong, red-tailed phascogale, Mitchell\u2019s hopping mouse, burrowing bettong, and the bridled nailtail wallaby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one species away from reaching a significant wildlife conservation milestone here in south west NSW,\u201d Ladd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last species planned for reintroduction to Mallee Cliffs under the first phase of the project is the top-order mammalian carnivore, the western quoll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love Australia’s weird and wonderful environment? \ud83d\udc0a\ud83e\udd98\ud83d\ude33 Get our new newsletter<\/a> showcasing the week\u2019s best stories.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Against all odds, one of Australia\u2019s smallest marsupials has returned to southwest NSW, more than 150 years after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[428,103734,103736,103735,56374,103733,61536,90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-248468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australian-wildlife-conservancy","10":"tag-dirk-hartog","11":"tag-european-settlers","12":"tag-extinct-species","13":"tag-mainland-australia","14":"tag-nsw","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom","19":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}