A rare sighting has been made of a brush-tailed phascogale going about his business during the night.
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Caught on MidCoast Council’s motion sensor camera on Gereeba Island near Tuncurry, the sighting has excited Natural Systems staff as proof that their work over years to restore the natural ecosystems on Wallis Lake islands is paying off.
"We have only observed this species once on the island - when a fox was captured on camera with a killed phascogale in its mouth" said Council's Senior Ecologist, Mat Bell.
"We didn’t expect to see phascogales on this site; as it is mainly swamp oak forest and other estuarine wetland - not the phascogale's usual habitat.
"We have now erected nesting boxes on site to assist this endangered species and our continued efforts to control feral animals like foxes will reduce the major threat to phascogales on the island" said Mat Bell.
Unknown to most Australians, its common Aboriginal name is 'tuan' and it is about the size of a rat. They are the largest animal in Australia that has an annual male die-off – all males die at 10 to 12 months of age after the breeding season. This strategy means that the young can move into unoccupied territories easily, but it also leaves the species highly susceptible to local extinction if breeding in any one year fails.
