At sunset on Phillip Island, 100 eastern barred bandicoots, noses quivering, took their first steps into their new habitat.
Once extinct in the wild on mainland Australia, the species is the star of its own comeback show – driven by a world-first genetic rescue programme that has rebuilt a population of more than 2,000 animals.
Previously widespread across southeastern Australia, by the late 1980s, just 60 remained, living among abandoned cars at a rubbish tip in Hamilton, Victoria. They were taken into captivity and, by 1991, declared extinct in the wild.
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Three decades on, they are back – and that matters beyond the fact they are rather cute. Bandicoots are powerful ecosystem engineers, each turning over up to three tonnes of soil a year, improving soil health, seed dispersal and water retention while strengthening landscapes against flood and drought and helping keep insect populations in check.
The bandicoots will have a soft launch: Phillip Island has none of the predators key to the eastern banded bandicoot’s decline – foxes or feral cats – though with domestic cats roaming the island, the bandicoot must have its wits about it.
What is it about bandicoots?
- Only 30 years ago, the species was declared extinct in the wild on mainland Australia, regaining its numbers through a genetic rescue programme created by conservationists
- They’ve influenced pop culture. Crash Bandicoot, the iconic gaming and entertainment character, is based on the eastern barred bandicoot
- They’re gentle creatures that carry their young – called joeys – in their pouches, making them part of the marsupial family. They carry them just like kangaroos, but facing inward so the joeys don’t get muddy when the bandicoots dig
- An eastern barred bandicoot joey is no bigger than a grain of rice when it is born.
- The gestation period for a female eastern barred bandicoot to carry a baby joey is 12 days – one of the shortest gestation periods of any mammal
- A female can raise up to 5 litters every every year, usually giving birth to 2 to 3 babies each time. That’s another reason why conservation programmes are able to successfully rebuild populations
- They’re natural born gardeners, using their pointy conical noses to burrow perfectly round holes into the earth, helping grass seeds to grow and germinate, making an important contribution to biodiversity
- Each eastern barred bandicoot is capable of burrowing 3 tonnes of soil every year, making them powerful ecosystem engineers
- The animals are omnivores, living off small insects, worms and grubs, but they also love peanut butter and rock melon
- The species gets its name from the tiny stripes or ‘bars’ across its rump, which distinguishes it from other bandicoot species
This bigger, better bandicoot is built to survive. The work, led by Odonata Foundation, Cesar Australia and the Eastern Barred Bandicoot Recovery Team and backed by Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund, has produced a tougher, more genetically resilient animal.
The programme works by breeding from previously isolated populations, mixing mainland bandicoots with a Tasmanian population to rebuild genetic diversity.
Dr Andrew Weeks of Cesar Australia said: ‘We’ve built a fit, feisty bandicoot population with far greater genetic health and a much better chance of survival than their inbred predecessors.’
The same approach could now help save endangered animals all over the world
