SYDNEY, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Two locally extinct mammal species have been reintroduced to a national park in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW).
Scientists on Tuesday released 20 Western Quolls, a carnivorous marsupial, and 20 Burrowing Bettongs, a member of the rat-kangaroo family that lives underground, into Sturt National Park in arid northwestern NSW.
It took the total number of mammal species listed as extinct in NSW that have been reintroduced to national parks in the state to 13.
Both the Western Quoll and Burrowing Bettong disappeared from NSW almost 100 years ago due to predation by feral cats and foxes.
Their reintroduction has been made possible by the establishment of a network of feral cat and fox-free areas across NSW national parks.
The individuals that were released on Tuesday were bred at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in the NSW town of Dubbo and the Arid Recovery project in South Australia.
They join bandicoots, bilbies and other species of bettongs that have previously been released under the project, a collaboration between the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Wild Deserts Project Partnership, which involves the University of NSW.
"These are the first Western Quolls in NSW for almost a century and the 13th locally extinct mammal returned across NSW. It's a big moment in our quest to reverse the loss of biodiversity across NSW," Penny Sharpe, NSW's minister for the environment, said in a statement.
"This is not just about the return of individual species. It is about restoring ecosystems which depend on Bilbies, Bettongs and other ecosystem engineers to support the landscape by digging, spreading seeds and boosting water and nutrient cycles," Sharpe said.
Populations of the Greater Bilby, a small and burrowing marsupial, Golden Bandicoot and Brush-tailed Bettong have more than tripled in size since they were released into the feral-free network.
Two species, the Western Quoll and Greater Bilby, have also been released into a 10,000-hectare fenced area with a much lower density of feral cats than the wild landscape to test if they can survive.
The federal government earlier in September boosted funding for its war on feral cats by 60 million Australian dollars (41.3 million U.S. dollars).
Feral cats kill a combined 1.5 billion native mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs every year, according to the government. ■
