\u201cWhen we open the bag, their first thought is just \u2018we\u2019re outta here\u2019,\u201d says Dr Bryony Palmer, a wildlife ecologist at AWC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile they\u2019re in the air they figure out where they are and then off they go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bettongs had been taken from inside an 8,000-hectare fenced \u201csafe haven\u201d within the sanctuary \u2013 away from the teeth of feral cats and foxes \u2013 where 162 of them released there in 2015 have now grown to about 1,000.<\/p>\n
With cats and fox numbers being managed by the conservancy outside the fence, the hope is the bettongs, also known as woylies, will survive and thrive as they once did<\/a> before Europeans introduced cats and foxes that are prodigious native wildlife killers.<\/p>\n From bilbies and numbats to quolls and phascogales, eight threatened native mammal species \u2013 all once locally extinct \u2013 have successfully been reintroduced over the past decade since the conservancy bought the 130,000-hectare former sheep property in 2000.<\/p>\n \u20185% of Australia\u2019<\/p>\n This week AWC will reveal an ambitious strategy to expand this kind of project well beyond its already sizeable footprint across the Australian continent.<\/p>\n If you add the 6.8m hectares of land AWC owns or partners on purely for conservation to the 6.1m hectares where it works mostly with pastoral companies to improve conservation, \u201cthen that\u2019s significant, globally \u2013 it\u2019s about 1.7% of Australia\u201d says the chief executive of AWC, Tim Allard.<\/p>\n By 2035 the organisation hopes to expand the area where it is carrying out conservation work \u2013 either on its own properties or on land being used for other things, such as cattle grazing \u2013 to about 5% of Australia\u2019s land mass.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about where we want to be,\u201d Allard says. \u201cBut it\u2019s what we think is necessary to secure Australia\u2019s natural heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s unenviable record on mammal extinctions<\/a> \u2013 the worst in the world \u2013 is well known. The federal government has promised no new extinctions and pledged to have 30% of land protected by 2030<\/a> \u2013 part of a global \u201c30×30\u201d conservation goal.<\/p>\n \u201cOn 30 by 30, we have been at pains to say that if that land is not being effectively conserved, then it\u2019s all for naught,\u201d Allard says.<\/p>\n \u201c30 by 30 is about protecting areas but increasingly we have to think beyond that. About 54% of Australia is managed for pastoralism. We have to find a way to have sheep and cattle and conservation working together.\u201d<\/p>\n The 30×30 target for Australia includes everything listed on a national reserve system and 24% of the land is now protected in areas like reserves and parks managed by local and state governments, the commonwealth and not-for-profit conservation groups like AWC.<\/p>\n To reach its lofty goals, Allard says the organisation wants to grow from its $40m-a-year revenue that comes mostly from philanthropy, to a $100m-a-year organisation.<\/p>\n The conservancy hopes the new high-profile appointment to its board of the former NSW Liberal treasurer Matt Kean, the chair of the federal government\u2019s Climate Change Authority, will help increase its reach and raise more funds.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Clear Air Australia<\/p>\n Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re drawing a line in the sand,\u201d Allard says. \u201cThis plan is the boldest private response to the extinction crisis in our nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a major challenge in this country with the decline in biodiversity, but we also have a massive opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to give people some hope. The goal is to grow that philanthropy. Only about 2% of charitable giving in Australia goes to the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the world\u2019s biodiversity is in the southern hemisphere, but most of the money is in the northern hemisphere. We have to find ways to sell Australia internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n Ecosystem engineering<\/p>\n Back at Mount Gibson, the bettongs released last month are being tracked every two days with the help of radio collars on 20 of them.<\/p>\n Palmer is getting ready for the arrival of a team of botanists to survey the sanctuary to see if the reintroduction of the small mammals has started to help more native plants grow.<\/p>\n A lot of Australia\u2019s smaller mammals are \u201cecosystem engineers\u201d that help spread seeds and improve soils with their digging.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you walk through the fenced area, there are these little dig holes everywhere with little seedlings growing in them,\u201d Palmer says.<\/p>\n Those benefits might be spilling out of the fenced area.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve started to get records of the bettongs outside the fence,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s six foot high, but they\u2019re good climbers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like a ball of fur mounted on a spring, they leapt into the crisp night air and on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[746,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-116843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114967582379257494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Critically](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4480.jpg\")
Critically endangered bettongs thrive in South Australia reserve after local extinction \u2013 video<\/p>\n