The Australian Government is sharing the news that the goal to bring native biodiversity back to Booderee National Park has received a boost with two threatened species reintroduced to the park making it their home.
The Australian Government, through Parks Australia, has led a project to reintroduce eastern quolls and southern brown bandicoots to an area where they’d been absent for decades.
Booderee National Park, at Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast, is where this ambitious project to restore native biodiversity is taking place.
Recently a young adult southern brown bandicoot was discovered while eastern quolls have also reappeared. Both threatened species were reintroduced to Booderee National Park in the past few years following almost 15 years of continued intensive fox control management.
Seeing these animals remain in the park is a tremendous result and follows years of planning, hard work and dedication. We’re seeing these native mammals making Booderee National Park their home, which is an important step toward the restoration of Booderee’s ecosystem.
Southern brown bandicoots were reintroduced to Booderee National Park in 2016, 2017 and 2018 having been absent from the region since 1919.
A recently discovered young male bandicoot was the first caught since February last year. He didn’t have a microchip so park managers know that he was born in Booderee. This is exactly what park managers hoped to see a few years after the species was reintroduced.
Meanwhile the detection of a female eastern quoll, Indie, released in 2019 but not seen for six months, is more good news. Eastern quolls were reintroduced to the wild at Booderee in 2017 and 2018 after not being seen alive on the mainland for half a century. In a planned operation, rangers trapped another quoll, Bruce, and relocated him to an area where females are known to be present. Park managers hope moving Bruce will encourage breeding this year. This will help Booderee continue to build toward a stable long-term population of eastern quolls.
Parks Australia staff at Booderee National Park are continuing fox control work to protect these native mammals. Both reintroductions are collaborations between the traditional owners of the park – the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council, government and non-government agencies and research institutions.
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