Greater bilby numbers quadruple at Australia's predator-free sanctuaries
Australian Wildlife Conservancy's annual census estimates 5,330 greater bilbies on its sanctuaries and partnership sites, up 2,000 in a year and four times the 1,230 counted in 2021. Fences that keep out feral cats and foxes have let the burrowing marsupials breed fast.
The greater bilby, a burrowing marsupial sometimes called the Easter Bilby, is threatened across Australia, and its cousin the lesser bilby went extinct last century. Now its numbers are climbing where it is protected.
Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) counts bilbies every year at six sanctuaries in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales. Its latest census estimates 5,330 bilbies, up from 3,330 a year earlier and four times the 1,230 recorded in 2021. AWC says this is the world's largest population of bilbies protected from foxes and cats.
Two sites drove the rise. At Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary in Central Australia, around 530 bilbies now live inside a fenced, predator-free area, up from 66 released three and a half years earlier. At Mallee Cliffs National Park in south west New South Wales, where AWC works with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, there are now an estimated 1,840 bilbies, from 107 released between 2021 and 2023.
"When freed from the relentless predation pressures of feral cats and foxes, Australia's wildlife can naturally rebuild their populations, often far more rapidly and robustly than expected," said AWC chief executive Tim Allard. Good rain helped too: Newhaven had 637 mm in 2024, the most since 2001.
The bilbies are reshaping the land. Their digging turns over soil, helps it hold rainfall and encourages new plants, and other animals, such as golden bandicoots and brushtail possums, use their burrows.
Remove the predators and a threatened native animal rebuilds its numbers fast, helping the whole landscape recover.
Source: Australia's Greater Bilby population quadruples in time for Easter (Australian Wildlife Conservancy).
Written by the HappyGood desk from the primary source linked above and checked against it. Every story links its source. Corrections: [email protected].
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