Wild Deserts information sheet Number 1: January 2017
A project to reintroduce locally extinct mammals to Sturt National Park in NSW
Wild Deserts is Bilbies are delicate desert an exciting new survivors. Their diggings for partnership between insects, seeds and plant roots the University of help water and carbon infiltrate the soil. New South Wales, Ecological Horizons and the Office of Environment and Photo Hugh McGregor Heritage, with a vision to understand, restore Burrowing Bettongs live in warrens. and promote desert Their diggings make them an ecosystems. important ecosystem engineer, improving soil health and mixing The project aims to bring back organic matter. One bettong seven extinct mammals to the can shift three tonnes of soil in a NSW corner country, using large year! fenced exclosures and a range of innovative predator control Photo Andrew Freeman and research techniques in Sturt National Park.
Wild Deserts will exclude feral The Stick-nest Rat predators and herbivores such builds barrel-sized nests from as cats, foxes and rabbits, before sticks where it shelters from reintroducing mammals that predators and the elements and were once widespread in NSW raises its young. but have not been seen for over a century.
Photo Hafiz Stewart
Wild Deserts is a partnership between:
Australia’s smallest bandicoot, the Western Barred Bandicoot, escaped total extinction by surviving on two predator-free islands in Western Australia.
Photo Ben Parkhurst Photo Judy Dunlop Photo Katherine Moseby Photo Reece Pedler
The Golden Bandicoot A formidable native cat-sized The Crest-tailed is also a great digger, moving carnivore, the Western Mulgara is best described between grass clumps to dig for Quoll preys on small animals as a miniature Tasmanian devil – insects, roots and tubers. up to the size of a rabbit. Females a ferocious micro-predator that have a pouch and can have up to eats almost anything smaller six joeys. than itself!
Specialised netting fences will be used to exclude rabbits, cats, foxes and wild dogs from the project area. These include a buried foot netting to stop digging under and an overhanging ‘floppy top’ to keep out climbing predators.
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The site is located in the north-west corner of New South Wales at Sturt National Park, where New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland meet.
Photo Rebecca West
Contact us Reece Pedler (Project Coordinator) [email protected] 0400 038 452 Rebecca West (Ecologist) [email protected] Fort Grey Homestead, 0425 222 687 Sturt National Park 08 8091 3881