An endangered marsupial on the edge of extinction has been translocated from the Birdsville Track to a reserve in South Australia.
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Conservation research non-for-profit organisation Arid Recovery has relocated a population of kowaris to an Australian-first safe haven on Andamooka Station, in the South Australian north west.
Kowari is a nocturnal carnivorous marsupial that is found only in a small pocket of south western Queensland and north-eastern South Australia and faces 20 per cent risk of extinction in the next 20 years unless protected from key threats, such as feral cats.
Twelve kowaris were caught at their last known population on Clifton Hills Station on the Birdsville Track last week and relocated to help repopulate the species.
"Thanks to good rains in the last year, we were able to harvest 12 animals without impacting the wild population," Arid Recovery chief executive Dr Katherine Tuft said.
"Those 12 kowaris were tucked into special transport crates and flown by light plane to Arid Recovery where the base crew fitted each animal with a radio transmitter and let them go into soft-release pens after dark.
"(This) release is just the beginning. We hope that kowaris establish well enough to be a strong insurance population for the species. Much will be learnt about the enigmatic kowari in coming months as we monitor them in their new home."
The kowaris were released into Arid Recovery's fenced reserve, which includes 12,000 hectares that's threat free from cats and foxes.
"By putting them in our fenced reserve, we'll eliminate that threat acting on them and we hope that it will act as an insurance for the population and hopefully one day we'll have enough animals to send back into the wild."
Funds through the Australian Government's Environment Restoration Fund - Safe Havens program have helped cover the costs of preparing the reserve for kowari and of the translocation.
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