Transcript

Editor's note (January 10): An alteration was made to this introduction to clarify that the issue is relevant to mainland Australia and not to Tasmania.

BEN KNIGHT, PRESENTER: It wasn't long ago there were only 40 Eastern Barred Bandicoots left on mainland Australia. It was a shocking figure and it triggered a rescue effort and a breeding program. Well it's worked, to a degree. Bandicoot numbers are now back up to around 600, but the animal is still officially extinct in the wild there and its survival is not yet guaranteed despite a more robust population in Tasmania. Kathy Swan reports.

KATHY SWAN, REPORTER: Meet the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, an Australian marsupial quietly teetering on the brink of extinction.

PETER SULLIVAN, HORTICULTURALIST, WERRIBEE OPEN RANGE ZOO: They're an amazing little, little creature, but it's hard for us to understand and see that amazement when they are coming out at 9.30 at night and it's out in some grasslands out in the bush somewhere.

KATHY SWAN: If it can avoid becoming an easy snack for cats, dogs or foxes, this type of bandicoot grows up to be smaller than a rabbit, a bit of a loner and prone to eating worms, insects or spiders in the dark. For those working to save the species, there's a lot to love.

PETER SULLIVAN: Very gentle, very quiet, nice big beady eyes. I think their snout, long pointy nose is pretty attractive, yeah. It makes 'em from pretty cute. And the stripes on their back, that's pretty unique.

SALLY LEWIS, DIRECTOR, WERRIBEE OPEN RANGE ZOO: It's a local. It's from here. Also it's cute and cuddly. It's got all those attributes that make it so lovable.

KATHY SWAN: The Eastern Barred is not the only type of bandicoot around, but this particular branch of the marsupial family from Australia's south-east has just a tiny toehold on survival.

SALLY LEWIS: There's only a few hundred left, so extinct in the wild and we're breeding them here at the zoo. So, certainly very low numbers. They're concerning numbers and that's really what's driving our passion to bring them back up.

KATHY SWAN: Even so, Werribee Open Plains Zoo director Sally Lewis says it'll take more than numbers for the species to survive.

SALLY LEWIS: The number one ingredient for us is the feral proof fencing, so to provide a landscape that cats and dogs, foxes can't get into is the best solution and then also the grass cover. And if you can get those two things right, and that's pretty challenging, but if you can get that right, then they'll do well.

MARISSA PARROTT, BIOLOGIST, ZOOS VICTORIA: It's a really sad story. Bandicoots used to be widespread across Victoria in grasslands like this and in grassy woodlands, but most of their habitat has been destroyed for agriculture and urban sprawl.

PETER SULLIVAN: They stretched pretty much from the west of Melbourne almost to the South Australian border.

KATHY SWAN: Horticulturalist Peter Sullivan has been part of a great and costly effort to bring the native grasses back to this patch of the Werribee Plains, south-west of Melbourne.

PETER SULLIVAN: Getting the seed is quite difficult because there's only small amounts of remnants left. Another challenge is because of the agriculture that's occurred on the land nutrients are very high and there's a lot of weed in the soil. We've actually removed the top 200 millimetres of topsoil prior to sowing, so that's removed that high nutrient layer and also removed all the weed seed.

KATHY SWAN: 30-odd years ago, the last of the wild Eastern Barred Bandicoots were found living in a old car wreck at the Hamilton tip in Victoria's west.

TIM CLARK, ZOOLOGIST (1989): 'Round 1980 there were probably 1,500 bandicoots here. 1985: 600. 1988: 300. And it's quite obvious that that rate of decline could not continue much longer. We're gonna lose the species.

MARISSA PARROTT: Back in 1991, bandicoots became functionally extinct in the wild. There were only about 40 left. So, some of these animals were brought into captivity.

MICHAEL KIDMAN, ZOO KEEPER, WERRIBEE OPEN RANGE ZOO: The first sort of animal I ever handled was, yeah, trapping outside the township of Hamilton and holding a little wild bandicoot and I think it's that connection that you were holding one of the last wild ones that were in the wild and that makes a big connection with me.

KATHY SWAN: The irony is these little creatures are breeding machines. Pregnant for just a tad over 12 days, they start life about the size of jelly beans and initially stay hidden away in mum's pouch.

MICHAEL KIDMAN: Then, within 60 days, whammo, we're ready to do it again because those young have grown up and gone. It's just such a rapid turnaround.

KATHY SWAN: At a recent sunset event, five Eastern Barred Bandicoots, four females and one male, were released into the new native grassland area at the not-for-profit zoo. Eventually, they all set off to set up their solitary nests. But zoo staff have their fingers crossed that the right things will go bump in the night.

SALLY LEWIS: If we can't save the Eastern Barred Bandicoot then as easy and quick as they do breed, then it just makes that mountain for the other species seem so much higher.

MICHAEL KIDMAN: People now have to provide the secure environment for this animal to survive. I mean, it's not up to anything else except us.

BEN KNIGHT: Kathy Swan reporting.