A smoky mouse that was recently released into the Nungatta Feral Predator-Free Area in South East Forest National Park. Photo: DCCEEW.
A critically endangered native Australian mouse has been reintroduced into a forest on the NSW Far South Coast and there are plans to bring more lost animals back to the region in the future.
Reintroducing the smoky mouse to an area of the South East Forest National Park means the species of rodent has returned to a location where it has not been seen since the 1990s, the NSW Department of Environment and Heritage said earlier this week.
Almost 50 of the mice were recently released into the area and there are plans to release up to 120 more each year.
The smoky mouse is the first threatened species to be reintroduced into the 2000-hectare Nungatta Feral Predator-Free Area constructed in the national park.
Up to nine other locally extinct species will also be reintroduced to Nungatta in the next few years, including the long-footed potoroo, eastern bettong, eastern quoll and New Holland mouse.
“Nungatta is a special place, the first feral cat and fox-free area in the tall forests of South East Forest National Park,” David Kelly, the manager of threatened species for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), said.
“The return of the smoky mouse is the first step in a major ecosystem restoration project that will see locally extinct species reintroduced, and existing local populations bounce back from decline.”
A captive breeding program for the smoky mouse started in 2016.
About two or three times the size of the introduced house mouse, it was first recorded in NSW in 1993 near Mt Poole, which is near the South East Forest National Park in the Nungatta State Forest.
The environment department said there was a population of smoky mice in Kosciusko National Park and a small number in the Nullica area of South East Forest National Park.
“They are also present in a small number of sites in western and eastern Victoria, but have not been seen in southern Victoria in a long time,” the department said.
The department said the smoky mouse’s numbers had significantly declined due to feral cats and foxes, habitat loss, inappropriate fire regimes and infestation of understorey shrubs with an introduced root rot fungus.
The smoky mouse reintroduction is a collaboration between the NPWS, the NSW Government’s Saving our Species (SoS) program, the National Threatened Species Institute and University of Canberra.
“This project is about saving endangered species and thereby restoring ecosystem health,” Mr Kelly said.
“In the future, once all these reintroductions are complete, I look forward to South East Forest National Park being an even better place to visit than it is already.”
The Nungatta Feral Predator-Free Area was established by NPWS as part of a network of 10 feral cat and fox-free areas.
Once all sites are complete, almost 65,000 hectares of national park will be free of feral predators, the environment department said.
Loading ...
