IN PHOTOS: BETTONGS HOME AT LAST ON YORKE PENINSULA

The next generation needs our help.

Discover how you can help baby animals thrive and give endangered species like the platypus, eastern quoll and brush-tailed bettong a future.

On 17 August, 40 brush-tailed bettongs from Wedge Island, South Australia, were translocated to Yorke Peninsula and released at Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park.

These pioneering bettongs have been missing from the peninsula for the last 100 years, and now that they’re back, they have a big role to play to restore the landscape to its former glory.

It’s an incredible milestone for the Marna Banggara project.

This project aims to turn the tide on Australia’s nationwide extinction crisis and restore the spectacular Yorke Peninsula landscape by reintroducing locally extinct species across 150,000 hectares.

Take a look at some of the stunning images from the release below.

Wedge Island

The team flies to Wedge Island, South Australia, where they sourced 40 pioneering brush-tailed bettongs from a thriving population to be translocated to Yorke Peninsula.

The team prepares traps for the brush-tailed bettongs.

Chloe Frick (PhD Student, University of Adelaide) sets a trap. These traps contain baits made of peanut butter, oats and honey to lure bettongs.

It’s a long night for the team as they perform health checks and attach radio collars on the brush-tailed bettongs that’ll be translocated to Yorke Peninsula.

Translocation

Incoming! Precious cargo on this flight.

The charter plane safely lands at Marion Bay in Yorke Peninsula.

Dr Liberty Olds (Conservation Manager, Zoos SA) and the team unload their gear and precious cargo off the aircraft.

Yorke Peninsula

The veterinary team from Zoos SA does a final health check of the brush-tailed bettongs.

Narungga Elder Quenten Agius performs a traditional smoking ceremony to welcome the brush-tailed bettongs back to Guurunda Country.

Brush-tailed bettongs have been absent from Yorke Peninsula for more than a century.

The team heads towards one of two release sites in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park on southern Yorke Peninsula.

One of the 40 brush-tailed bettongs is released.

Home at last!

This project is jointly funded through the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board, the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, the South Australian Department for Environment and Water, WWF-Australia and Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife.

Other partners actively involved in developing and delivering the project include Regional Development Australia, South Australian Tourism Commission, Zoos SA, FAUNA Research Alliance, BirdLife Australia, Nature Conservation Society of SA, Narungga Nation Aboriginal Corporation, Primary Producers SA, Primary Industries and Regions SA, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Legatus Group, Yorke Peninsula Council, Yorke Peninsula Tourism and Scientific Expedition Group.