Animal Scientists Thought Was Extinct in Area Spotted on Camera

To the delight of conservationists, an adorable little marsupial that had been feared extinct in Western Australia's northern Wheatbelt region has been spotted on a wildlife camera.

The brushtail possum was caught on a motion sensor camera in an area where the creatures had not been seen for over a century.

This comes after 49 of the possums were released by conservationists in 2021 into the Mount Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary, around 19 miles away from where the possum was seen on camera in the Charles Darwin Reserve.

"Brushtail Possums were locally extinct in Western Australia's Wheatbelt since around the early 20th century. Australian Wildlife Conservancy reintroduced 49 individuals to the 131,812-hectare Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary (on Badimia Country)," Joey Clarke, senior science communicator at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, told Newsweek.

"Twenty-six possums were released inside Mt Gibson's 7,800-hectare feral predator-free fenced area while a further 23 were released outside the fence, in an area subject to intensive feral cat and fox control."

Brushtail possums are nocturnal marsupials native to Australia, and are around the same size as housecats. Their fur can vary in color from silver-grey to dark brown, enabling them to blend seamlessly into the eucalyptus forests, woodlands, and urban areas they inhabit.

They are commonly found in Australia's east and southeast, but have been declining in the west and other regions. The possums are protected in Australia, but are considered invasive species in New Zealand following their colonization of the neighboring island nation in the late 1800s.

Brushtail possums are threatened in many areas of Australia due to habitat fragmentation and loss, as well as increasing predation. Their home eucalyptus forests provide them food and shelter from predators like foxes and feral cats.

"One of the biggest threats to Australian mammals, including the Brushtail Possum, are introduced predators: cats and foxes. Predation by these animals poses a significant threat to the possums and contributed to their population decline in the Wheatbelt," Clarke said.

Michelle Hall, a senior ecologist at Bush Heritage Australia, agreed. "The habitat they need to survive and reproduce has been fragmented and degraded by land use changes since colonisation, including clearing and grazing of native vegetation. These challenges have been exacerbated by introduced predators (feral cats and foxes) and potentially increasing periods of extreme heat and dry associated with a changing climate," she told Newsweek.

The conservationists are thrilled at the sighting of the possum on the camera, as it means that their reintroduction efforts are succeeding.

"We know that the possums are moving onto neighboring properties from some tracking work that we have done after reintroductions in 2021 and 2022," Australian Wildlife Conservancy regional ecologist Amanda Bourne told ABC. "It was really nice to get some confirmation from one of the other agencies of a possum on their property."

The fact that the possum was spotted nearly 20 miles away and in a different wildlife reserve from where the population was first released shows the value of having multiple sanctuaries close together, creating corridors for wildlife to thrive within.

"It's a very attractive spot to do outside of the fence reintroductions of locally extinct mammals because there are many like-minded partners in the region who are managing their properties for conservation," Bourne said.

Several other species of marsupial have been released into the Mount Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, including numbats and western barred bandicoots.

This find comes only a few months after another feared-extinct marsupial—the spotted-tailed quoll—made a miraculous recovery, appearing in South Australia for the first time in 100 years.

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Update 2/20/2024, 12:58 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Joey Clarke and Michelle Hall.