Getty Images image captionThe Eastern Barred Bandicoot has been bumped off the Australian state of Victoria’s “extinct in the wild” list A small furry marsupial that roamed the grassy plains of Australia’s Victoria state has been brought back from the brink of extinction, officials say. Numbers of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot plummeted because of non-native foxes, habitat destruction and feral cats. Now, after 30 years of conservation efforts, the number has jumped from just 150 animals to an estimated 1,500. It is the first time Australia has changed the status of an animal from “extinct in the wild” to “endangered”. When recorded population levels of the bandicoots plunged in the years leading up to the late 1980s, conservation teams in the state of Victoria invested millions of dollars setting up captive breeding programmes. They created predator-free sites – some of which were protected by trained dogs – and moved some of the animals to fox-free islands. Mouse thought to be extinct rediscovered in Australia Announcing the change in conservation status of the bandicoot on Wednesday, Victoria’s Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said she was “excited” about the project’s success, adding: “It is an incredible first for Australia.” A threatened species […]
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