A Nature Festival event held at Nixon Skinner Conservation Park, Myponga, has equipped local land managers and property owners with valuable information to help protect and care for nationally endangered southern brown bandicoots and their habitats.

The event was hosted by Landscapes Hills and Fleurieu, the Fleurieu Environment Centre and Friends of Nixon Skinner Conservation Park.

Participants learnt how to identify southern brown bandicoots and their diggings, how to protect bandicoot habitat from overgrazing, and how to manage weeds and feral animals in bandicoot habitat.

Southern brown bandicoots are the only species of bandicoot left in the Mount Lofty Ranges and Fleurieu Peninsula region. 

They are found from the Williamstown area, to the southern Fleurieu Peninsula, and play an important role in native ecosystems. 

Each bandicoot may turn over a staggering four tonnes of soil each year when digging for food. 

This action enhances soil microbiology and provides opportunities for many native plant species to germinate, leading to healthier landscapes.

Sam Sutherland, Biodiversity Project Officer at Landscapes Hills and Fleurieu, says that reports of recent sightings have been promising, and managing habitat on private property is vitally important to ensure their survival.

“Because bandicoots are vulnerable to extinction, protecting, improving and expanding their habitat will give them the best chance to bounce back to numbers that are more sustainable.

“Grazing pressure from kangaroos, deer, rabbits and goats can degrade critical habitat, and a lack of suitable habitat can leave them vulnerable to introduced predators like cats and foxes.”

Bandicoots can be found in both remnant native bush areas, and more urban or peri-urban areas, using both dense native vegetation and dense non-native vegetation as habitat.

“They need low, dense habitat, so if an area has vegetation that is at least knee high and you would struggle to walk through, it is likely perfect!

Sam Sutherland says.

“There are certainly some simple things land managers can do to care for bandicoot habitat, and likewise help us track their whereabouts by logging sightings on the Bandicoot Superhighway Portal. 

These are very special little marsupials and we need to work together across the whole landscape to help them out.” 

Find out more about the Bandicoot Superhighway Project at the Landscape SA website.