Wheatbelt farmers creating wildlife corridors for endangered numbats

Most people who spot a numbat never forget it. However for the past decade, sightings have been few and far between, with their population devastated by feral cats and foxes. But recent surveys suggest the endangered West Aussie animal is having a comeback, with 35 sighted in November — more than triple the number in 2019 and the highest in 26 years. And farmers — together with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Perth Zoo, Project Numbat and other conservation groups and organisations — have played a pivotal role in the species’ resurgence. It is believed there are less than 1000 of the animals left, which were once found across the country but are now restricted to two populations in Western Australia. It is estimated somewhere between 200 and 400 call the Dryandra Woodland — which is made up of a 13,000ha main block and 16 other smaller blocks — in the Wheatbelt home. Cuballing crop and sheep farmer Rob Harris remembers the last time he saw a numbat on his property like it was yesterday. His face lights up recalling the sighting in 2000. “It was on the road reserve between the two properties,” he said. “I had to look three times because it was the last thing I was expecting. “Then I got home and told my wife and we rang CALM (now the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions).” He and wife Verity run one of about 50 farms which neighbour parts of the sprawling woodland. Over the years, they have been working on feral cat control and restoring and protecting the 400ha of remnant vegetation on their property to establish wildlife corridors. Through the Peel Harvey Catchment Council’s Numbat Neighbourhood program — formerly Farmers for Fauna — they have received funding to carry out projects encouraging numbat activity. “We’ve been doing stock exclusion, fencing through the program for probably 6km and (we have got) funding for another 5km over the next two years,” Mr Harris said. “We’re doing it as a legacy for the future,” Mrs Harris said. PHCC program manager Mel Durack described the response from farmers in the region volunteering to help protect remnant vegetation for the endangered animals as “overwhelming”. “The farmers have been doing a lot of work but it hasn’t been recorded as they just do it as part of running their farm,” she said. Through community grants, Mrs Durack said the PHCC was able to assist farmers with fencing, weed control and feral animal control, which not only benefited numbats, but other native animals including the woylie, chuditch, red-tail phascogale and mallee fowl. “So we’re working to create linkages where we can allow them to pass through farming properties safely. “The numbats suffered such a significant decline in numbers due to habitat loss and feral predators. The project — which is run in partnership with the DBCA, Project Numbat and Perth Zoo — also involves an annual workshop in the woodland itself to build the capacity of farmers to identify numbat activity through scats and digs. Fifth-generation farmer Mike Burges — who has been undertaking fencing and revegetation since the 1980s — runs a mixed cropping and sheep operation north-east of Cuballing bordering the Commodine and East Yornaning nature reserves. He said the three projects he had funded by the PHCC built on the local farming community’s work 40 years ago fencing the Commodine Creek, which led into the Hotham River. Particularly passionate about the red-tailed phascogale — which was once present in the East Yornaning Nature Reserve in bigger numbers — he has formed an integrated plan with two of his neighbours, which has already delivered exciting results. “That’s been really good,” Mr Burges said. “Primarily we’re fencing off degraded areas and areas of remnant vegetation on our respective properties that join up with the reserve. The small animals are not only unique in appearance, but are one of the country’s only strictly diurnal (active during the day) marsupials. They also have an insatiable appetite for termites, eating up to 20,000 a day. DBCA research associate Dr Tony Friend has dedicated much of his four-decade career to conserving the faunal emblem of WA, only recently retiring to a research position last year. Having spent so much of his life working with the animals, he said the results from the department’s latest survey — in which surveyors drove the same route very slowly six times over a handful of days — were very encouraging. The population last peaked in 1992, three years after DBCA’s fox control and 1080 baiting began, with 36 sightings. It then halved the following year. In 2018, Dr Friend said just five were spotted, doubling to 10 in 2019 before tripling to the 2020 figure. For the past five years, DBCA has also been releasing animals bred through Perth Zoo’s breeding program to bolster numbers. Eleven were released last month, fitted with radio collars. Dr Friend said the devices provided valuable information, with DNA swabs of collars collected after animals had been predated showing the last numbat taken by a cat was back in 2015. “So the cat numbers have dropped, but it’s taken the numbats a while to recover,” Dr Friend said. With numbers looking up, Dr Friend said they would be doing an additional survey in May to keep tabs on it, but he was excited to see the animals much more frequently on his Dryandra trips. During a recent visit, one even walked right past him, giving him a glance before resuming eating termites.