Southern brown bandicoot sighted in Kuitpo Forest for first time since Ash Wednesday fires of 1983

A motion sensor camera has captured a rare sighting of southern brown bandicoot at a location in the Kuitpo Forest near Kangarilla, just south of Adelaide.

Rangers say it is the first recorded sighting of the endangered animal in nearly four decades in Kuitpo Forest near Kangarilla.

Kuitpo Ranger Lennan Whiting explained “this is the first visual confirmation of the bandicoot within Forestry SA land since the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983.”

The fires killed 14 people in the Adelaide Hills region and another 14 in the south-east of South Australia.

Local Landcare volunteers and environment staff had suspected the species' presence and reported diggings last spring, so cameras were set up in the hope of getting a confirmation.

Ecologist Elisa Sparrow told the ABC, the sighting took place in native remnant vegetation well suited to bandicoots - stringybark woodland with a dense understorey of mainly bracken and yaccas.”

Sparrow said there were also blackberry bushes in the area, which provided excellent protection from predators, adding “(it) is also a declared weed. For this reason blackberry removal must be staged and strategic.

"Areas of dense native understorey need to be in place as alternative habitat before blackberry is taken out."

In 2016, volunteers began creating a wildlife corridor across 19 properties between Belair National Park and Mark Oliphant Conservation Park in the Adelaide Hills to support the bandicoots.

Last year, the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife said residents could do simple things to help preserve the region's southern brown bandicoot population.

Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife Chief Executive Ian Darbyshire advised “plant some native species - keep your own pets under control, talk to your neighbours (and) see if they will do the same.

"(People can) create some corridors throughout the Mount Lofty Ranges (in the Adelaide Hills) so the animals can move around, mate, meet and spread the gene pool around."

Dr Sparrow said weed control efforts for blackberries would aim to contain the plants rather than immediately remove them, to give more time for native vegetation to regenerate.

Rangers now plan to put more sensor cameras in other areas of remnant vegetation in Mount Lofty Ranges forest reserves as they hope to gain a better understanding of the bandicoots' distribution.

They say there are 20,000 hectares of state forest in the region and close to one-third is managed solely for biodiversity conservation.

The southern brown bandicoot seems by nature to be a shy and elusive creature - so much so that sightings in the wild are extremely rare.

The miniature marsupials, they only grow to about 30 centimetres in length. are nocturnal, foraging on forest floors and scrub to feed on insects, ferns and plants.

Once common, their numbers have dwindled as a result of pressure from introduced species. Today their populations are patchy, distributed mostly throughout Australia's southern fringes.

Image: An infrared sensor camera caught this rare sighting of the southern brown bandicoot. Courtesy of Natural Resources SA. 

28th December 2017 - ANOTHER 1174 HECTARES ADDED TO SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL PARKS 

27th November 2017 - SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT REVEALS $150 MILLION CLELAND WILDLIFE PARK UPGRADE 

8th September 2017 - $3 MILLION BOOST FOR NATIVE WILDLIFE ON THREATENED SPECIES DAY

22nd August 2017 - HIDDEN CAMERAS REVEAL NATIVE SPECIES OF THE GREAT OTWAY NATIONAL PARK 

17th May 2017 - NEW TRAILS WEBSITE LAUNCHED IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

10th November 2015 - MELBOURNE PARK HELPS ENDANGERED EASTERN BARRED BANDICOOT TO THRIVE

20th August 2014 - FEDERAL GOVERNMENT APPOINTS COMMISSIONER FOR THREATENED SPECIES