As other endangered Australian wildlife, the mountain pygmy possum has recovered to its pre-wildfire population in the Snowy Mountains.
While conservationists are to be applauded for the turn around, they maybe aren’t the experts you’d expect to be managing such a delicate species, but rather groups of students from the local schools.
Home for this miniscule species is a mountain range in Australia’s New South Wales state, and in the Victorian Alps in the country’s northeast. The adults weigh just 40 grams, and are the only species on the continent that will hibernate under snow.
Following the 2017 drought and the 2020 Australian bushfires which touched Kosciuszko National Park in the far south of the state, the numbers of this endangered arboreal marsupial fell to as low as 700, but after several years of emergency snack delivery, they have rebounded dramatically to almost 1,000.
Linda Broome, a threatened species officer with the NSW Environment Department, described the animal as “very endearing,” and told ABC News AU that the population had recovered to “normal” levels.
“They’re alpine specialists and there’s so little alpine country in Australia that they’re very unique,” said Dr. Broome. “They’re cute, they’re very endearing.”
Even more than the bushfires, it was the 2017 drought that sent their population into free fall. One of their main staples is the larva of the Bogong moth, which was significantly diminished by the lack of moisture.
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But students at the local NSW schools in the Snowy Mountains towns of Berridale, Jindabyne, Cooma, and Adaminaby, intervened by making “Bogong Biscuits,” a mixture of macadamias, mealworm, and various oils that replicated the fat content in the moth larvae.
“We fed them for two years, until the vegetation recovered,” said Dr. Broome. “If we hadn’t fed the possums, they would have dropped down to 500.”
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