Of Moths and Marsupials – bioGraphic

The team aimed to create something the possums would like, but not lovemore gym protein bar than sweet treat, Parrott says. Trials with captive possums confirmed that the animals would eat the bikkies only if they couldnt get their bogong moths or other natural foods.

In November 2019, Parrotts team successfully tested their concoction in the wild among the struggling possums in the Victorian boulder fields, using a variety of different home-made feeders. But it wasnt until January 2020 that the bikkies really proved their worth. That month, Parrott got a call she would never forget. It was Linda Broome, and she didnt even say hello. Its gone, Broome said. Theres nothing left. Bushfires sweeping across vast areas of Australias southeast had hit northern Koscuisko National Park, near Cabramurra. The areas tinder-dry boulder fields were home to a thriving population of mountain pygmy possums that Broomes PhD student Hayley Bates had discovered in 2010.

Broome knew the possums had likely survived, deep in the damp crevices. But when she visited days after the conflagration, she found the still-smoking hillsides devoid of vegetation and insects for the animals to eat, and no water for them to drink. Please tell me your food and your feeder worked? Broome asked Parrott. It was one of the proudest moments of Parrotts life that she could say yesthat the prototypes had been successful, and that they were ready to deploy.

The Zoos Victoria team sent bags of bogong bikkie mix and prototypes of the feeders to Broome, and the volunteers got making and baking. Every week for the next two summers, the team delivered fresh bikkies and water to 60 feeders stationed across the burned boulder fields.

By the end of 2022, the animals were thriving without support. On one of the sites, almost every trap had possums, says Bates, now an ecologist at the University of New South Wales. Vegetation was returning only slowly, but other prey like bugs and beetles were already crawling around the boulders. The expensive, labor-intensive experiment had workedproving that in extreme situations, audacious interventions can stave off disaster for endangered species. Unfortunately, the need for them will only rise.

Bushfires are natural in Australia, but their frequency and intensity are predicted to increase as the climate warms. Alpine ecosystems in particular require a long time to recover, especially from consecutive burns. In 2003, for instance, bushfires burned right over the top of Mount Blue Cow. Twisting, skeletal forms still writhe among the bouldersthe bleached bones of mountain plum-pine, another favored food source for the possums. Broome transplanted seedlings to replace them, but two decades later, even though the recent fires spared Mount Blue Cow, theyre only just beginning to take.

Then theres the snowthe emblem of the high country, and the source of the water that feeds the fens and the streams. Snow depth and the number of snow days have been declining in Australia since the 1950s, and climate scientists warn that, by the end of the century, the Snowy Mountains may no longer live up to their name.

The outlook for the alpine zone as we know it is pretty bleak, says ecologist Lesley Hughes, an emeritus professor at Sydneys Macquarie University, IPCC report author and director of the Climate Council of Australia. Even before its gone completely, dwindling snow cover will disturb the possums winter rest. Thicker snow provides more insulation; without it, the animals nests get colder, which could wake them from hibernation before moths arrive or berries ripen, Broome says. Snow is also a barrier to predators, and warmer winters allow feral cats and foxes to range more freely and hunt possums more easily. In 2002, Broome began trapping and killing cats at Mount Blue Cow. She caught 30 that first winter.

Read the original:
Of Moths and Marsupials - bioGraphic