Bandicoots return to Sturt National Park
Published on the 08 Aug 2021
Locally extinct bandicoots have returned to Sturt National Park after more than 100 years.
The nationally threatened species – known by local Aboriginal people as ‘talpero’ – once ranged across inland Australia, including the area now managed as Sturt National Park. The small, native marsupials became extinct in the region after ecosystem changes caused by rabbits and predation by feral cats and foxes.
Now, a founding population of talpero have been reintroduced to the area by the team at Wild Deserts, a collaboration led by UNSW Sydney ecologists and Ecological Horizons with the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment and Taronga Conservation Society Australia.
Their reintroduction is another major milestone in the Wild Deserts conservation project, which last year reintroduced bilbies and mulgaras into the national park.