Understanding movement patterns of threatened bats is critical, though sometimes difficult, to conserving their habitats. This study was undertaken to understand movement patterns for the threatened Pilbara diamond-faced bat, resulting in the recordings of two large, 40-km, flights undertaken over single nights. This study will be used to conserve habitat for the species and demonstrates the capability of new and emerging tracking technology. Photograph by Christopher Knuckey.

The red-tailed phascogale is a threatened marsupial species native to Australia, and it has been reintroduced to Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary in Western Australia. Traditional monitoring methods for the species did not work at Mt Gibson, so we relied on camera monitoring until we developed an arboreal trapping method. The monitoring methods have shown that the reintroduction has been successful, and the arboreal trapping methods may be useful at other red-tailed phascogale populations.

Camera trapping was used to describe aspects of the breeding pattern in the long-nosed potoroo in the north of its range. Cameras operated continuously at eight sites over a 17-month period. Females produced two to four young per site equating to 2.1 per year. Image by R. Goldingay.

Boodies (burrowing bettongs, Bettongia lesueur) have a maternal social structure in their remnant natural population on Barrow Island. We have successfully recreated a similar social structure in Matuwa Kurrara Kurrara National Park, despite translocation and hybridisation. Given that many attempts to translocate boodies to the unfenced landscape have failed, possibly because the translocated animals showed no site fidelity or group cohesion, our research is the first to recommend that pre-existing social groups be translocated together, rather than random individuals.

The greater bilby, an iconic and culturally important Australian marsupial, now inhabits less than 20% of its former range. The Pilbara bioregion, a vast multi-use landscape in the north-west of Western Australia (WA) is an important stronghold for the species. To improve knowledge of the status and ecology of bilbies in northern WA, a research program, informed by multiple stakeholders, was instigated. The ensuing program has greatly enhanced our ecological knowledge of the bilby in the Pilbara and elsewhere in WA. Photograph by © John Lawson.