{"id":53209,"date":"2025-07-10T04:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T04:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/53209\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T04:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T04:40:14","slug":"remarkable-26-year-change-revealed-on-aussie-desert-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/53209\/","title":{"rendered":"Remarkable 26-year change revealed on Aussie desert property"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the heart of Australia\u2019s outback, a vanishing world has been created that only springs to life at night. Behind towering fences at South Australia\u2019s <\/a>12,300-hectare Arid Recovery Reserve<\/a>, 10 mammal species are being protected from invasive predators behind high fences, reestablishing a complex ecosystem that few people alive today have seen.<\/p>\n

The University of NSW\u2019s Professor Katherine Moseby is the lead author of a paper that has tracked dramatic changes over 26 years since rabbits<\/a>, foxes<\/a> and cats<\/a> were excluded from the landscape. When it comes to the elusive spinifex hopping mouse, its population is up to 33 times higher inside than outside the fence.<\/p>\n

During the day, you\u2019d have to have sharp eyes to notice signs of any of the tiny mammals that live there. There are small diggings in the soil from reintroduced species like bilbies<\/a>, but the desert sands and plant life appear near identical.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re driving around in a car, you have to go really slowly so you don\u2019t run over all the small mammals because they\u2019re just in such high abundance compared to the outside world,\u201d Moseby told Yahoo News.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re driving around outside, you can go at normal speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> Concern as rare birds retreat to mountains where giant moa became extinct<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Look closely and you’ll see diggings in the dirt from mammals living in South Australia\u2019s arid region. Source: Katherine Moseby<\/p>\n

Australia’s deserts were very different 150 years ago<\/p>\n

The study included nine native species, the spinifex hopping mouse, plains mouse, Bolam’s mouse, Forrest’s mouse, desert mouse, sandy inland mouse, stripe-faced dunnart, fat-tailed dunnart and Giles’ planigale. The tenth species was the introduced house mouse.<\/p>\n

During drought, the number of native mammals naturally declines, but after rain, furious breeding helps restore numbers. But the presence of feral predators outside of the fence area appears to interrupt the natural boom and bust breeding cycles, suppressing their recovery and eventually leading to localised extinctions.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Numbers of three species increased dramatically inside the protected zones. Source: UNSW<\/p>\n

The team was \u201csurprised\u201d to discover that in the absence of introduced predators, mammals were expanding into new habitats where they\u2019re not traditionally found. This indicates they have retreated from an array of landscapes since the arrival of Europeans.<\/p>\n

The spinifex hopping house had primarily been associated with sand dunes, but behind the fences they have been seen in swales and clay-based lowlands. The plains mouse moved from swales to sand dunes.<\/p>\n

Sadly, not all of the animals that once roamed the Red Centre landscape have survived \u2014 there are several species missing from the study because they’re extinct. But the recovery of 10 highlights how much the nation once looked before European settlement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible how that country would have been so different back then. I think people drive through the desert and think there\u2019s nothing out there, but they\u2019ve just changed so much over the last 150 years,\u201d Moseby said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Ten species have been studied both inside and outside of the protection area. Source: Katherine Moseby<\/p>\n

\"Reads<\/a><\/p>\n

Discover more of our environment coverage.<\/p>\n

Anger as more Aussie species move closer to extinction<\/p>\n

Moseby isn\u2019t just sad that Australia has changed so dramatically and that few people are aware more species like the carnivorous kowari and greater bilbies are continuing to decline in numbers. She\u2019s mostly angry.<\/p>\n

In her decades of studying Australia\u2019s rare and endangered creatures, she hasn\u2019t seen any \u201cpolitical will\u201d to save those that have survived the initial wave of settlement, and the cocktail of threats that continue to suppress them. The country is famous for wiping out the Tasmanian tiger, very nearly killing off the koala, and it is notable for having the worst mammalian extinction record in the world.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Invasive species are responsible for numerous extinctions in Australia. Source: Tom Hunt<\/p>\n

Director Stephen Spielberg famously recreated a “Lost World” in his movie franchise about bringing dinosaurs back from extinction. The pre-colonial landscape in Australia hasn\u2019t yet been lost, but extinction threats are mounting, including climate change, which is heating parts of the desert to uninhabitable levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what we need to do. It makes me really frustrated that we could be doing so much more \u2013 we can improve land condition, reduce grazing, increase our control of cats and foxes, and improve fire management. We\u2019ve done the research,\u201d Moseby said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what we need to do, but it seems like we\u2019re banging our heads against a wall, because these things just don\u2019t get taken up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love Australia’s weird and wonderful environment? \ud83d\udc0a\ud83e\udd98\ud83d\ude33 Get our <\/strong>new newsletter<\/strong><\/a> showcasing the week\u2019s best stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the heart of Australia\u2019s outback, a vanishing world has been created that only springs to life at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":53210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[39651,39652,39650,159,6743,39653,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-53209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-katherine-moseby","9":"tag-mammal-species","10":"tag-professor-katherine-moseby","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-south-australia","13":"tag-spinifex-hopping-mouse","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114827101776593390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53209","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=53209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}