Kangaroo Island conservationists overjoyed after endangered dunnart spotted on burnt land

Conservationists on Kangaroo Island are overjoyed after spotting a critically endangered marsupial feared to be almost lost in the summer’s bushfires.

A tiny, critically endangered marsupial has amazed conservationists on Kangaroo Island, after being spotted scampering in bushland destroyed in this year’s bushfires.

More than 90 per cent of the Kangaroo Island dunnart’s habitat was burned in the blaze that swept across the island in January.

Since then, the Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife (KILfW) group has been working with local landowners to track the mouse-like animal, with fears just 50 could remain in the wild.

Just 500 Kangaroo Island dunnarts were estimated to remain in the wild before the fires. Picture: Jody Gates.

Most of the dunnart’s habitat was destroyed in the blazes. Picture: Facebook/Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife

Sensor cameras detected a small number of dunnarts living on a patch of unburnt land earlier this year.

But the animal has now been spotted in an area that was left with no green vegetation following the fires, raising hopes they could still be saved from extinction.

Local Peter Hammond, whose property is being used to monitor the animals, described the find as the “most exciting thing to happen here this year”.

“How did the dunnart survive the devastation of our property and the entire surrounding district?” he said on Facebook. “What a tale of survival!”

The Kangaroo Island dunnart has now been spotted venturing onto burnt land. Picture: Facebook/Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife

Pat Hodgens, an ecologist with the KILfW group, said he was amazed to see the animal back where they were known to live before the fires.

“Amazing they escaped the fire itself then found enough food and then evaded predators,” he said on Twitter.

But Mr Hodgens cautioned that dunnart numbers were still low at other survey sites.

“It is important to note that while this is fantastic news, we have many survey sites that are not detecting KI dunnarts,” he said.

“We also don’t yet have a good handle on the number of individuals in remnant patches, therefore all detections are significant”.

Amazed to detect a surviving #KIdunnart at one of our former monitoring hotspots. The recent bushfires razed all of their habitat. Today with landholders we are establishing a grid of #feralcat cage traps and constructing artificial shelter sites #privatelandconservation pic.twitter.com/9wHNVtMkhT

— Pat Hodgens (@terrainecology) June 1, 2020

A shelter tunnel built on Kangaroo Island for wildlife to use after the bushfires. Picture: Facebook/Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife

The Kangaroo Island dunnart is only found on the island and is also threatened by feral cats.

Over the past couple of months, volunteers have been building “shelter tunnels” to protect the animal and other small threatened species from predators as they move between areas.

“We will continue to survey for this critically endangered dunnart across west end privately owned properties and help landholders in important threat reduction activities to support recovery,” the KILfW group said.

Originally published as Kangaroo Island conservationists overjoyed after endangered dunnart spotted on burnt land