Researchers are hunting for a long lost population of long-footed potoroos in south-east NSW by unravelling DNA profiles held in the droppings of known predators.
Conservation geneticist and project lead Andrew Weeks said analysing the genetic material of faeces was a very effective method of "determining what a particular predator has eaten".
"We have people who collect those scats, send them to our laboratory in Melbourne, then we extract DNA from those scats and determine what species are present by their DNA profile," he said.
"It's very effective for determining what a particular predator has eaten."
Often confused with its long-nosed cousin, the critically endangered long-footed potoroo has a longer tail, large hind feet and a leathery pad on the soles of its feet.
While the animal was present in small numbers in Victoria, they were last recorded in NSW about 30 years ago through hair samples collected in the South East Forests National Park.
More than 80 per cent of that park's habitat was burnt during the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020.
1,000 samples tested
NSW Minister for Environment James Griffin said the project would be the first long-term survey of the animal, with 1,000 predator scat samples set to be tested over the next year.
It was taking place ahead of a proposed reintroduction program in a new feral predator-free area within the national park at Nungatta, near Bombala.
"From next year, we're planning to reintroduce native mammals that were once abundant in this habitat, such as the long-footed potoroo, eastern bettong, smoky mouse and eastern quoll," Mr Griffin said.
NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) senior threatened species officer Joss Bentley said the scat survey would yield important results even if the long-footed potoroo was not found.
"Either way the results will still give us an excellent understanding of the animals currently living in these forests and complement our existing understanding of species distribution, which will help inform the south coast's first rewilding projects," she said.
Mega-fire impacts
Dr Weeks' lab will soon release results from an Australian-first study into the impacts of a mega-fire on the biodiversity of Victoria's Gippsland region.
He hopes it will be considered good news for parts of NSW burnt during Black Summer.
"The general trend is that we didn't actually find a great impact of the bushfires themselves, and more broadly there isn't a clear-cut pattern of major impacts of the fires," Dr Weeks said.
He said while the DNA testing process — similar to a COVID PCR test — did have some limitations, it would play a crucial role in the future of biodiversity management.
"I think the future is not to just detect a species but learn more information about individuals of that species," Dr Weeks said.
He said the technology would soon be able to pick up not just the presence of individual animals, but how many individuals were in a population.
"Ideally, we will be able to understand what the genetic diversity is like within those particular individuals so it can tell us a little bit about the population genetics and the genetic health of the populations," Dr Weeks said.
"It's a little way off, but that's the future of the technology."
