Know Before You Go

Mushrooms comprise a significant portion of the diet of at least 37 species of Australian mammals and are an important energy source for potoroos. These rabbit-sized marsupials share a mutualistic relationship with mycorrhizal plants; each one depends on the other for survival. Potoroos and their mycophagous (fungi-eating) kin are primary vectors for spore dispersal. Together, they maintain root health, store carbon in Australia’s forests and buffer plants against environmental stresses such as disease and drought. The long-nosed potoroo lives in areas of dense understory throughout Tasmania and between southern Australia and Victoria, to southern Queensland.

A closely related species, Gilbert’s potoroo, was presumed extinct until 1994, when a tiny population was rediscovered in Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, Albany. Today, they are critically endangered, with less than 50 individuals remaining. In January 2016, this species was identified as one of the 20 mammals within the Australian Government’s Threatened Species Strategy for priority conservation. The long-footed potoroo is suffering from a declining population as well. They compete with introduced pigs for food and their habitat is degraded by fire and logging activities. The destroyed brush cover makes them vulnerable to predation from foxes and ferals.

Researchers from the Conservation Ecology Center and the University of Melbourne have been tracking predators and their prey species with GPS collars, as well as via cameras to determine the risks bushfires and feral predators presents to threatened native species, such as the long-nosed potoroo and southern brown bandicoot. This is the first time collars have been used on long-nosed potoroos anywhere, and the first time they’ve been used on cats and foxes in the biodiverse woodlands of the Carlisle Heath. Additional support is provided by conservation dogs, who sniff out the scat of endangered species