Sydney [Australia], July 13: The environment department in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) announced on Thursday that eastern bettongs, which are small, hopping, and kangaroo-like marsupials, have been successfully reintroduced back to the state after vanishing more than a century.
According to a statement released by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment, a group of male eastern bettongs have been released into a fox and feral cat-free haven within the Yiraaldiya National Park.
The department highlighted the release as the first step in establishing a new population of at least 150 bettongs in the 500-hectare feral-free area at Yiraaldiya, with additional eastern bettongs from Tasmania to be translocated over the next 12 months.
"For the first time in 100 years, eastern bettongs are back in our NSW national parks," said Atticus Fleming, head of NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Australia is the global epicenter for mammal extinctions and the story of the bettong family is particularly tragic -- two bettong species are extinct, another two species were lost from mainland Australia and two species are endangered, said Fleming.
"The return of the eastern bettong to NSW is historic -- demonstrating that we can turn back the tide of extinctions and begin restoring populations of even the most endangered species," he added.
Source: Xinhua