Signs of recovery for Kangaroo Island wildlife

Sightings of the tiny and rare Kangaroo Island dunnart have been captured on wildlife motion-sensing cameras by the non-governmental organisation Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife.

The sightings of these tiny dunnarts are particularly heartening after fears habitat destruction from the summer’s devastating bushfires would decimate the threatened nocturnal marsupials already only numbering between 300 and 500.

Fires burned about 200,000 hectares of land, almost half the island, and especially the protected areas in which dunnarts are found.

South Australia Department for Environment and Water Chief Ecologist, Dr Dan Rogers said specialist advice from some of the world’s leading experts in the rare species was helping.

Dr Rogers advised that he received a phone call from Professor Chris Dickman, a dunnart expert, who explained the biggest risk during the fire and immediately after.

Dr Rogers noted that “after the fire the dunnarts that survived were being found in relatively high densities in unburnt patches and we thought they would be honey pots for the remaining cats on the island… we tried to reduce the risk from the cats.”

Now, the mouse-like creatures that have a pouch like a kangaroo for their babies and are related to quolls and Tasmanian devils, are looking safer with Dr Rogers commenting “they have got a lot of fight for their size.”

More than 90% of the dunnart’s habitat was burned and the non-governmental organisation Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife is working with landowners and National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia to monitor the threatened species.

About 50 motion-sensing cameras are set up in 10 of the larger unburnt patches of parkland and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy has built a cat-proof fence around one dunnart population on private land on the west coast of Kangaroo Island.

Early work to use aeration pumps to mimic water movement and improve circulation also appears to have helped save the only platypus habitat on the island in the burned Rocky River region of the Flinders Chase National Park.

The rare duck-billed semi-aquatic mammals survived the fire that destroyed vegetation along with the nearby visitor centre, housing and campground.

Fears ash and soil runoff from land denuded of vegetation would rob their pond of oxygen were quickly addressed.

Dr Rogers explained “we installed the pumps before two days of rain, a lot of ash went into the pond but the platypus survived that with the pumps providing benefits.”

He said volunteer support and donations from around the world to protect wildlife had been overwhelming, even famed actors like Jamie Foxx in the United States fundraised for Kangaroo Island wildlife highlighting that “some of these species people around the world have never even heard about and suddenly people are donating to help them, the profile of threatened species throughout the bushfires has been remarkable.

“There are many species on Kangaroo Island found elsewhere in the country but because they have been isolated they have their own unique forms.”

Dr Rogers said COVID-19 had not disrupted the remote work at this stage but would be continually reassessed as guidelines came into play, with the main issue being people travelling to and from the island.