An army of tiny engineers is undertaking an ambitious project to restore biodiversity on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula. The work is being done by a newly reintroduced population of bettongs. Researchers are watching closely to see how these furry workers are helping plants and animals bounce back after years of habitat loss.
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00:00Russell bettong is a small marsupial.
00:05It's known as a woyli in Western Australia to the Noongar people, and over here on New
00:10York Peninsula it's known as yowgi.
00:11So this morning we're heading out trapping bettongs.
00:14So I've got the self-bagging bettong.
00:20Doing in-hand trapping is actually a really valuable way to monitor and track the trajectory
00:26of a population.
00:27Gorgeous.
00:28They've got a lot of attitude.
00:29I would call them feisty.
00:32So we're here in Dilba Gurundur, Innis National Park.
00:36Even though it does look beautiful, it does look like we have managed to hold on to a
00:39lot of that native vegetation.
00:41You get down here on the ground and there are a few things missing.
00:45Our native mammals, they just weren't used to the predation pressure that came with cats
00:49and foxes.
00:50We've had about 80% of our non-volant terrestrial mammals go locally extinct here on the peninsula.
00:56So we're hoping to bring some of them back and get things started again.
01:00The first bettong hit the ground here in Dilba Gurundur, Innis National Park in 2021.
01:05So we took 40 animals from Wedge Island.
01:07At the moment we're seeing good signs, but it's really early days yet.
01:11So this is what we mean when we call them ecosystem engineers, and more specifically
01:15soil engineers.
01:16So you can see this entire area here is just covered in these tiny little pockets of diggings.
01:22So the bettongs are here on the York Peninsula doing the job that we brought them here for.
01:26It really helps improve soil quality.
01:28So we have things like increased water infiltration, improved seed germinations.
01:34Bringing them back here to do that job that they used to do is really going to change
01:38things for the national park.
01:39Rewilding and healthy ecosystems actually have positive impacts on both the small and
01:46large global scales.
01:48Improved soil quality, climate regulation, cleaner air with more vegetation.
01:53We're bringing back ecosystem engineers all across Australia.
01:57I think we'll be able to see some really positive changes.