Oz - 36 Mammal Species In Victoria Alone Threatened By Habitat Loss, Predation, Climate Change - Age

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PITY the plight of Victoria's eastern-barred bandicoot. While its more famous and numerous cousin, the bilby, now shares equal status with the Easter bunny, its numbers are now in double digits. The 50 remaining eastern-barred bandicoots were bred in captivity but neither the money nor human resources exist to keep its nemesis, the fox, at bay in the four remaining colonies between Hamilton and Tullamarine.

The bandicoot is one of 36 mammals in Victoria — 77 birds, 24 fish and 11 amphibians — whose survival is threatened by the combined effects of habitat destruction and fragmentation, climate change and introduced predators. Some conservationists say that the efforts to save some species through habitat protection and restoration, predator control and captive-breeding programs, are underfunded and too dependent on volunteers. "We are reliant on Federal Government money and if the species isn't federally listed then you don't get funding," said zoologist Peter Myroniuk. "The Victorian Government, although it supports the Department of Sustainability and Environment, doesn't put a lot of money into threatened species," he said.

But a spokesman for Victorian Environment Minister John Thwaites disputed this. "It's misleading to talk about funding commitments from the State Government when we spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year funding our agencies such as DSE, Parks Victoria and Zoos Victoria," he said.

DSE wildlife ecology senior policy officer Peter Menkhorst said there had been some significant victories in the fight to save the state's endangered species, such as the successful reintroduction of the state's bird emblem, the helmeted honeyeater, to the Bunyip State Park from birds bred in captivity.

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/prospects-dim-for-states-threatened-species/2007/03/09/1173166986026.html