I recently came across some incredibly unexpected news - Walkabout Creek in Brisbane now has Striped Possum!! This is based on two sources - a post from a local MP and this video I attached below showing the animal. The centre just opened a new education space and the possum seems to be viewable during a wildlife discovery show during weekends. I have also emailed the centre directly but haven't receive a response. Source: 7News Brisbane https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=663286078448790
From today’s visit to Wildlife HQ, the zoo has reacquired Lumholtz’s Tree-Kangaroo. A male is now on-display.
A few updates all confirmed through emails. I contacted David Fleay regarding if they still had Mahogany Glider, Black-footed Tree-Rat or Greater Glider as I had never really confirmed it as they haven’t been on show for a few years now. They just told me they didn't have any of them on display now but didn’t specify which ones were actually still at the park. They did mention they have plans to upgrade their nocturnal house soon to incorporate more species. Neither Darling Downs Zoo nor Walkabout Creek currently have Whiptail Wallabies. Walkabout Creek sent their last kangaroos to Lone Pine in 2021 and it seems that their last wallaby disappeared sometime before that. They have since been replaced with Swamp Wallabies at Walkabout very recently. No more Northern Nail-tail Wallabies at Caversham. They are still at Wildlife Habitat. Sydney Zoo also have two Ghost Bats mixed with their bilby making approximately 10 holders. I should also mention that Lone Pine still have two Little Red Flying Foxes on show as of last month.
Walkabout Creek Wildlife Centre received their first ever Lumholtz's Tree-Kangaroo last Thursday - confirmed via email. She is a rescued female and this creates a total of nine holders for this species.
Eight Western Quolls have arrived at Taronga Western Plains Zoo as part of a new breeding programme at Dubbo: Log into Facebook | Facebook
A pleasing recent trend with more threatened native rodent species among Australian zoos. a new breeding programme for New Holland Mouse is being created involving Moonlit and Melbourne Zoo with Melbourne Zoo collecting 22 founders recently from the wild: Playing matchmaker in bid to bring native mouse populations back from brink of extinction Central Rock-Rat now at Alice Springs Desert Park with 16 founders having recently been collected from the wild: Central Rock-rat, Australia’s most endangered mammal, airlifted to safe refuge
While not a zoo, Julia Creek Dunnarts are on Display at the Julia Creek Tourist Information Centre. 8 things to do in Julia Creek (Best source I could find)
Perhaps... The original "Donald" and "Duncan" were Fat-tailed Dunnarts: Tourism helps conservation of endangered dunnart While Donald and Duncan are fat-tailed dunnarts, which are found around the country, the local Julia Creek dunnart is endangered.Ms Fleming said they did not have Julia Creek dunnarts on display because there was currently no captive breeding colony and they were in the stages of re-establishing one. "We'll never take a Julia Creek dunnart from the wild and put it on display," she said." That article is from 2015, so those animals will be long dead. Most photos I can find which were taken at the centre are of Fat-tailed Dunnarts (generally identified as being Julia Creek Dunnarts, probably - I guess - because people were just assuming that is what they must be due to the centre being at Julia Creek and because all the information there will be for that species), but there are a few photos which do indeed show Julia Creek Dunnarts. I would suppose they have sometime quite recently obtained genuine Julia Creek Dunnarts for display (perhaps having established a breeding colony as mentioned in the 2015 article).
Back in about 2001 the Julia Creek dunnart was classified as Critically Endangered and researchers noted a boom in their wild population. Given their status and their temporary abundance we (Moonlit Sanctuary) were asked to take a group to establish an insurance population, which we did. Subsequently researchers determined them to be a boom/bust species, not surprising given where they live, and reclassified them as Least Concern. We returned most of our animals to Queensland, some went to Fleays and others were released. More recently they have been classified as Near Threatened because of the intrusion of prickly acacia into the habitat and land cultivation. I note the article describes them as Endangered, which they are not, and the threats as "pests and the ongoing drought". In conservation terms a captive population is not required (although fine if they want to keep displaying the animals), but what is required is habitat restoration. In a zoo context, I'd call this greenwash, but no doubt is more palatable in a rural community where land clearing is regarded as a right and necessity.
@MRJ Wow interesting story. So feral (fox/cat/dog) proof fenced-off protected hectares of their natural ecological environment would be best population support insurance for JC Dunnarts? (or any small marsupial in plight), plus perhaps continued horticultural intervention to try remove as much prickly acacias as possible from said area...typing this last paragraph have realised possibly the most 'captain obvious' statement have ever written hahaha (suppose just ruminating while have chance to hear from wise minds). The boom-bust population pattern is interesting to learn about too.
The answer is, to my best knowledge, no, predator proof fencing would not be an answer or maybe not even be desirable. Julia Creek dunnarts live in deep cracks in the soil and can quickly retreat to those cracks when on the surface. I doubt predation has much effect on the population. The threat would be prickly acacia and land-use changes destroying the cracks, denying the dunnarts their refuge. Boom/bust means the population booms during good seasons and almost disappears during poor seasons. If conservation is confined to a small fenced area there may not be enough animals present during bust seasons for them to stage a recovery during good seasons. I could be wrong, I'm not in touch with recent developments.
Monarto Safari Park have recently collected 52 Plains Rats from the wild to commence a breed-for-release programme, similar to their work with the Mitchell's Hopping-Mouse and Greater Stick-nest Rat - reported in the 2021-2022 annual report: https://www.zoossa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ZSA_2021-annual-report.pdf
A significant number especially on the east coast. Kangaroo Island kangaroos have a reputation of being very visitor friendly, and we have certainly found that ourselves. However they are not reported separately so no figures would be available.
Mogo Wildlife Park has Plains Rat as well. This must be the species of unsigned rodent a few members have mentioned in their trip reports that is on-show in the café area: 登录 Facebook | Facebook
That is interesting it may be due to them having no contact with humans or large predators for that matter since the Ice age, thus may have mostly lost their fear of predation akin to the Dodo. This is probably what makes them more relaxed and less skittish with people compared to mainland red and grey Kangaroos.
As of my visit to Territory Wildlife Park on 29/11/22, I can confirm that both the Common Planigale (kept in the Nocturnal House) & Black Wallaroo (an old male kept alone in the Rocky Ridge) are both still alive & well.
Billabong Sanctuary near Townsville has received its first Lumholtz's Tree-Kangaroo - a male that wasn't able to be released: 登录 Facebook | Facebook
