Endangered Queensland bilby numbers set to be buoyed by predator-proof fence repair

Extract from ABC News

By Damien Larkins and Peter Gunders

Posted 24 minutes ago

Photo: It is estimated only 400 bilbies are left in the wild, with feral cats decimating numbers. (Supplied: Australian Wildlife Conservancy)

Map: Hungerford 4493

Queensland's endangered bilby population is set to get a boost with the repair of a predator-proof fence in the state's south-west.

Experts estimate only 400 bilbies are left in the wild, with feral cats decimating numbers.
The State Government has committed $700,000 towards fixing and upgrading the 15-year-old Currawinya National Park fence.
The fence suffered significant flood damage in 2010 and 2011, with floodwater washing parts away and causing widespread rust, which allowed large numbers of predatory cats through.
Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation general manager of life sciences Al Mucci has welcomed the news.
He said captive breeding at zoos and sanctuaries across the state would start ramping up.
"We will start hitting that green light on the breeding program while this fence is being constructed," he said.
"So when it's finished and ready to go we can send bilbies back into the fence again ... we want bilbies in the wild."
Once the fence is repaired, an eradication program will trap and remove most of the feral cats inside the area.
"It's a pretty methodical approach to eradicating cats," Mr Mucci said
"We believe there's only a few left in there right now. It's a long process but we're nearly to the end of that."

Photo: Breeding programs such as the one at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast will focus on increasing numbers to repopulate the fenced area. (ABC Gold Coast: Damien Larkins)

Mr Mucci, who is also a director at the Save the Bilby fund, said the new bilbies would be released in early spring this year or autumn 2017.
"In my experience when you let those bilbies go, they sniff around for 20 or 30 minutes and they know they're back to their homeland," he said.
"They go, they don't wait around. It's an amazing experience."

A stop-gap measure

Save the Bilby fund founder Frank Manthey said the fence funding announcement was a step in the right direction, but he hoped for a day the fence was not needed.
"To have bilbies spread all over the national park is a dream for a lot of us, but we have to make that dream happen," he said.
"I urge Queenslanders to keep the pressure up on the Government to deal with the problem of getting rid of the feral animals.

Photo: The bilby fence encloses 25 square kilometres of Currawinya National Park in south-western Queensland. (Supplied: Queensland Murray Darling Committee)

"We have a huge problem, but we have a responsibility to our kids to keep our native animals safe."
Mr Manthey said foxes and cats had devastated the population of the small marsupial he described as a true Aussie battler.
"This little furry critter lives out in the hottest country you can possibly find," he said.
"It once occupied about 75 per cent of Australia, and is now almost on the brink of extinction because of us humans and what we've introduced.
"It is so defenceless, but it survived. There is almost something mythical about it that you can't help but fall in love with."