Relocated brushtail possum caught on camera signals landscape-scale conservation success

A wildlife monitoring camera has captured a brushtail possum more than 30km from where it was reintroduced. (Supplied: Bush Heritage Australia)

Conservation groups are celebrating after a picture of a brushtail possum was captured in a part of Western Australia where the animals have not been seen for nearly a century.

While possums are a common occurrence in southern and eastern parts of Australia, they had been locally extinct in WA’s northern Wheatbelt.

In 2021, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy released 49 possums on the Mount Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary, 350 kilometres north-east of Perth.

Now what is believed to be one of those animals, or an offspring, has been detected 30km away on a neighbouring conservation property.

Bush Heritage Australia senior ecologist Dr Michelle Hall said the team was astounded to see the image of a possum while reviewing motion sensor camera photos.

“For people in some parts of Australia it is not that exciting because they eat people’s roses and all that, but in this part of Australia they have been regionally extinct for quite a long time. So that was a very exciting sighting,” Dr Hall said.

“Sometimes the quality of the photos can be a bit poor depending on how far away the animal is and what else is in the area, but this is a really nice picture, very clear.”

One of many native species helped

Possums were the ninth species the Australian Wildlife Conservancy released onto the Mount Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary.

Numbats and western barred bandicoot were two of eight species released inside a predator-free enclosure, while brushtail possums and chuditch have been released outside of the fence.

AWC regional ecologist Dr Amanda Bourne said the individual caught on camera was most certainly related to the animals released outside of the enclosure.

“We know that the possums are moving onto neighbouring properties from some tracking work that we have done after reintroductions in 2021 and 2022,” Dr Bourne said.

“It was really nice to get some confirmation from one of the other agencies of a possum on their property.”

Conservation cooperation success

Both Charles Darwin Reserve and Mount Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary are within 30,000 square kilometres of land managed for conservation by various organisations and the Badimia people in the Southwest Australia Biodiversity Hotspot, one of just two internationally-recognised biodiversity hotspots in Australia.

Dr Bourne said the detection more than 30 kilometres away from the original release location showed the value of establishing adjoining conservation properties to create wildlife corridors.

“It’s a very attractive spot to do outside of the fence reintroductions of locally extinct mammals because there are many like-minded partners in the region who are managing their properties for conservation,” she said.

In order to thrive, brushtail possums need eucalypt woodlands for food and protection, and a minimal burden of feral predators including foxes and cats.

Bush Heritage Australia has managed 68,600 hectares at Charles Darwin Reserve for 20 years, and Dr Hall said that during that time the property had become much more friendly for native animals.

“Bush Heritage does a lot of work managing the range of introduced species. It has been quite a long time since the last [pest] goat was detected,” Dr Hall said.

“So they are now getting that herbivore grazing pressure on native plant species down, and a big focus for us now is trying to keep the rabbit, cat, and fox populations under control,” she said.