The tiny yellow-footed antechinus marsupial is related to the Tasmanian devil. Photo: ACT Parks and Conservation Service/Facebook.
It’s been a long time between confirmed sightings, but ecologists have found new populations of a tiny marsupial in the ACT.
The yellow-footed antechinus is a shrew-like carnivorous marsupial found in parts of eastern Australia from Cairns to Mount Gambier, around Adelaide and the southwest region of Western Australian.
Recent studies have found the species is also present in two populations within the ACT – in the Kowen Escarpment and Rob Roy nature reserves.
Fauna ecologist for the ACT Office of Nature Conservation Jenna Ridley says the populations have been previously unknown to researchers.
“Currently, these two discoveries are the only places we know [of their presence in the ACT],” she says.
The species was last recorded in the ACT in 1993. The yellow-footed antechinus has not been positively identified on subsequent surveys.
A project went on the hunt for Canberra’s small mammals in 2023 as researchers put the Tidbinbilla and Namadgi areas under the microscope.
“They did camera work and vegetation studies across a few reserves and found antechinus on those camera images,” she says.
But the images didn’t give researchers all the answers.
“It can be really tricky to determine species, especially between the yellow-footed and the agile antechinus [a different species],” Jenna says.
“From a camera image, you can tell it’s an antechinus because you can see the tail length and the ears and the nose. But you can’t be 100 per cent sure of the species.”
Researchers catch the marsupials in traps to identify them. Photo: ACT Parks and Conservation Service/Facebook.
To identify species, researchers capture the marsupials by laying traps in areas where they’ve previously been detected on camera.
Over a fortnight in March, researchers baited the traps in the afternoon and checked them in the morning.
Their efforts paid off with males and females detected at each of the two sites.
“[Finding males and females] means we have a reproducing population which is really important for that population’s persistence,” Jenna says.
“For the yellow-footed antechinus, and antechinus in general, having the males and females is important because they do have really unique reproductive cycles.”
A male antechinus produces a large amount of testosterone every winter. After mating, they exhaust themselves and many die. It leaves the females to raise the offspring.
Jenna says while researchers have already put in “a lot of work” to find the new populations, more studies are on the horizon.
“The camera traps are an amazing resource. But you have to go through hundreds and hundreds of photos, and that takes time,” she says.
“I was not sure before trapping, which species we would get. There was a lot of hope we would get the yellow-footed antechinus, but it wasn’t a guarantee.
“The main significance is that we have this species in the ACT, which is really good news for our habitat and for the species as a whole.”
Jenna says the next step is studying the marsupial’s populations in more depth. Some studies are already planned for later this year and there’s also room for citizen scientists to reach out to the ACT Office of Nature Conservation if they see the yellow-footed antechinus.
“There have been records of them [coming near humans]. Especially if people live on a property near bushland, they might have them come into their shed,” she says.
“I think if we can get more data on where they are, even if that’s incidentally, that’s a really positive way for people to contribute.”
