Eastern bettong to get more protection
About 100 years ago people couldn't plant potatoes because eastern bettongs would dig them up and eat them.
The small marsupials were once very common around Canberra but they became extinct on the mainland of Australia.
In 2011 and 2012, the ACT government brought 60 Eastern bettongs from Tasmania, the only place they are now found in the wild, to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary where the small kangaroo-like marsupials have thrived and become extraordinarily popular with residents and visitors alike.
Today it's estimated there are at least 160 bettongs in Mulligans Flat and 70 in Tidbinbilla.
On Friday, Minister for the Environment and Heritage Mick Gentleman announced the species was listed on the ACT's threatened native species list.
The announcement comes after public consultation late last year.
"Bettongs play an important role in restoring the ACT’s grassy box-gum woodland, which is a threatened ecological community," Mr Gentleman said.
"As they dig for truffles to eat they are working as ‘ecosystem-engineers’, improving soil conditions, water infiltration and habitats for other organisms."
Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary ecologist Dr Kate Grarock said following the success of the reintroduction, the ACT Scientific Committee identified the need to give the animals future protection through listing in the native species list under the category of regionally conservation dependent.
"We're celebrating the fact the bettong is now listed which basically marks an important milestone for us in that it's gone from being just an experiment where we're bringing back these animals now they're officially acknowledged as a species in the ACT," Dr Grarock said.
She said listing an animal was a formal recognition of the need for ongoing management to conserve the species.
"There were so many of them here not so long ago, but sadly with foxes and cats and humans, we've lost them," she said.
"When they become extinct on the mainland of Australia it was really sad, but it's also really exciting because they're still in Tassie and we were able to bring them back to the ACT."
Conservation advice for the Eastern Bettong is available at environment.act.gov.au