After being driven to extinction in the area, these tiny brush-tailed bettongs were reintroduced to South Australia's Yorke Peninsula as part of an ambitious project to help nature heal itself — and evidence of their eco-engineering can already be seen.
Benefits to the wider ecosystem are evident after brush-tailed bettongs were reintroduced to Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park , on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula .Hidden in the undergrowth on the southern tip of South Australia's windswept Yorke Peninsula , an army of tiny engineers is helping to restore biodiversity to a landscape ravaged by land clearing and feral predators.
"Bettongs dig for their food, so they create all these little diggings and that helps improve things like soil quality, water retention and seed germination, which is really good for creating a healthy functioning ecosystem," Ms Hartvigsen-Power said.Land clearing for farming combined with the introduction of cats and foxes has seen about 80 per cent of land-based mammals, like the bettongs, go extinct locally.
This was combined with a 25 kilometre "leaky" predator fence that cuts across the "ankle" of the peninsula, through farms and across main roads. Once the risk from feral predators had been managed, 40 intrepid bettongs were airlifted onto the peninsula from a colony on Wedge Island, a scrubby outcrop wedged between the Southern Ocean and the Spencer Gulf.
When it rains, these little holes will fill with water, trap seeds and create the perfect conditions for new plant life."If we see increased seed germination, that will be more food for grazing and browsing animals such as kangaroos and emus," Ms Hartvigsen-Power said.The hard-working bettongs have also had the unexpected impact of controlling some introduced species of weeds.
Yorke Peninsula Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park Marn Banggara Western Quoll Southern Brown Bandicoot Red Tailed Phascogale Claire Hartvigsen-Power
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