It's hoped a new breeding facility for 14 critically endangered mountain pygmy-possums will help save the species from extinction.
The purpose-built facility at Secret Creek Sanctuary at Lithgow, west of the NSW Blue Mountains, is now home to the group with hopes they will breed there before being released into lowland rainforests.
The completion of the facility is a key step in a plan to save the species from extinction, with fewer than 3000 left in the wild.
The project is led by the University of NSW, in partnership with wildlife foundations and government conservation programs.
It received a boost from an unexpected quarter when Prague Zoo offered to inject more than $190,000 following the devastating 2019-20 black summer bushfires, that damaged parts of the alpine habitat of the little possums.
The new home consists of purpose-built foraging and nesting areas within a large building serviced with all of the resources needed to encourage the possums to enjoy life and, hopefully, be highly reproductive.
UNSW's Hayley Bates, from the School of Biological, Environmental and Earth Sciences, says the first stage of the breeding project is to get the possums acclimatised to their new environment, including sourcing new foods.
"The alpine environment is changing, we have already seen mass declines in Bogong moth numbers, an important food item for the possums in the wild," she said.
"We want to investigate how the possums will respond to modern changes in their environment so that when impacts of climate change occur, we can make better informed, science-based management decisions to protect this species in the wild," Dr Bates said.
Secret Creek Sanctuary CEO Trevor Evans says the breeding facility will give the mountain pygmy-possum its first real chance of surviving climate change.
"We've now got a facility that will enable these alpine possums to adapt to a very different environment of the kind that their ancestors enjoyed and thrived in for millions of years.
"The breeding facility will provide the bridge to help them transition back into those far more comfortable environments and survive the lethal changes coming to the alpine zone," he says.
Australian Associated Press
