Little diggers rebound
IT’S ALMOST DARK AT Woodlands Historic Park, a swathe of native grasslands just north of Melbourne Airport, where a small crowd has gathered with torches to witness a historic event. But the star of the show, an eastern barred bandicoot named James, has come down with a bout of stage fright and is refusing to come out of his crate. After some gentle coaxing from his keeper, James hops out of his box and stands blinking in the twilight, his tall ears and pointed nose casting a long silhouette. A moment later he turns and shoots away, disappearing into the tall grass.
It might be one small bound for this bandicoot, but it’s a giant leap for bandicoot-kind! James is joining a thriving population of nearly 1500 of a bandicoot species that’s now scattered across Victoria. Three decades ago the species was teetering on the precipice of extinction in the state.
Eastern barred bandicoots were once common across the grassy volcanic plains of western Victoria and numbers were once estimated to be in the tens of thousands. The region’s lava-enriched soil was ideal for agriculture, and during the 19th
