The world’s smallest possum has been found on Kangaroo Island amid fears that the species had been wiped out by the terrible bushfires of early 2020. A voluntary group discovered the little pygmy possum (Cercartetus lepidus) as part of a vital conservation effort across the 440,500-hectare island.
Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife is a biodiversity conservation program focused on providing safe havens for various plants and animals while improving habitats. It successfully surveyed 20 fauna sites and captured nearly 200 individuals from over 20 different wildlife species.
These species included southern brown bandicoot, native bush rat, western pygmy possum, brush-tailed possum, tammar wallaby, bull skink, Eastern three-lined skink, mallee snake-eyes, dwarf skink, pygmy copperhead, four-toed earless skink, bougainville’s skink, garden skink, heath goanna, eastern banjo frog, common froglet, painted frog, spotted grass frogs and bibron’s toadlet.
The group also captured a tiny little pygmy possum, weighing less than ten grams. Although these remarkable marsupials resemble dormice, they are unique to Australia. “This capture is the first documented record of the species surviving post-fire,” noted fauna ecologist Pat Hodgens in a statement to the Guardian. “The fire did burn through about 88% of that species’ predicted range, so we really weren’t sure what the impact of the fires would be, but it’s pretty obvious the population would have been pretty severely impacted.”
Almost half of the island was affected by the fires, therefore, significant work will need to be accomplished to protect the remaining pygmy possum population. According to Hodgens, the pygmy possums are at their most vulnerable now, particularly as the bushland regenerates, making them very exposed to natural and introduced predators such as feral cats. For further updates, you can follow Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife’s Facebook page here.
