The first golden bandicoots have been born in NSW's far north-west in 100 years, after formerly being extinct in the region.
As part of the Wild Deserts project, run by the state government and the University of New South Wales, in late May, 27 of the native marsupials were translocated from Western Australia and released in Sturt National Park.
Wild Deserts project coordinator Reece Pedler said there had been "incredibly rapid reproduction" since the animals had been released
"They have an incredibly short gestation of days or weeks, and most of their development is in the pouch like a joey kangaroo," he said.
"They are ejected from the pouch at a fairly young age and obviously are maturing really rapidly to then reproduce themselves."
Protecting native fauna from feral animals
The project has feral-animal-free areas, but there are still cats, foxes and rabbits that can put the native fauna in danger.
With the increased rain it can still mean a "boom bust" environment for native and feral animals.
"Unfortunately we had a small cat climb over our fence … and we were all hands on deck there for several weeks with traps, a professional shooter and a whole range of tools at our disposal," Mr Pedler said.
"A huge amount of hours [were spent] in terms of trying to detect the cat with remote camera traps, and we used a red sand tracking surface to detect the cat’s tracks," he said.
But in the end they were able to catch the cat with a tool called a Felixer grooming trap.
The device is able to detect cats from their shape and size and fires a poison gel.
"And because cats hate anything being on their fur they lick it off quite quickly … and now we’ve not been able to find any evidence of the cat," Mr Pedler said.
More species on the list
He said these trapping results show "absolutely flourishing populations" of the golden bandicoots as well as bilbies.
"We’re working on getting cat populations in there … so we can start trailing releases of bilbies into an environment where they can be exposed to low levels of feral cats so they can learn what they are," Mr Pedler said.
"Ultimately, our goal is to see these animals beyond these fenced exposures and living in the wider environment where feral predators are controlled or in controlled densities."
Mr Pedler said the project has more species on the list, and are working through the approvals on what animals to reintroduce next year.
