Latest news with #NewHollandMouse
ABC News
12-07-2025
- General
- ABC News
The Pookila mouse was spotted in Western NSW for the first time in decades.
The native pookila or New Holland mouse has been rediscovered in the Goobang National Park after a 28-year hiatus.
ABC News
12-07-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Rare pookila mouse rediscovered in Western NSW as species fights for survival
For the first time in almost three decades, conservationists have rediscovered an elusive native rodent in Western New South Wales, more than 200 kilometres from its typical coastal habitat. The pookila, also known as the New Holland mouse, was live-trapped and released in Goobang National Park in April, 28 years after it was last recorded in the area. Its discovery has offered a glimmer of hope for the micro "ecosystem engineer" after it was listed in March as vulnerable in NSW, meaning it faces extinction in the medium term. Meanwhile, in Victoria and Tasmania, the pookila is considered endangered — at high risk of extinction in the near future. With 12 of Australia's native rodents extinct, there are urgent efforts to safeguard those that remain. "Our native rodents are really over-represented in our mammalian extinction record," said Zoos Victoria field officer Nadia Nieuwhof, who led the search effort for the pookila in the Goobang. "At the zoo, we're aware of that kind of extinction crisis and we're doing what we can to fight for [them]." Ms Nieuwhof's team deployed 282 motion-sensing cameras across eight parks and reserves in NSW and Tasmania, with 91 placed in Goobang National Park, where the pookila was last recorded in 1997. The cameras were baited with peanut butter and oats and left for up to four weeks at a time in an attempt to attract the cryptic mouse. "Goobang National Park is really significant in that it's the furthest inland extent of their range and it is some 200 kilometres further inland than any other record we have for the mice," Ms Nieuwhof said. "Given it's quite a special case, we decided to absolutely cover the entire park with cameras." It is also a notably "steeper and more rocky habitat" for the critter, which usually prefers sandier soil. The team also live-trapped the mice for genetic testing. "Once we analyse the genetics, it'll be interesting to see if these more inland populations differ from their coastal counterparts," Ms Nieuwhof said. The effort was part of a two-year project under the Australian government's Saving Native Species Program to reassess the pookila's status. Zoos Victoria led the project in collaboration with the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and other agencies. While the team was excited to discover the mouse was still in Western NSW, the results suggested a shrinking population. Pookila were historically distributed throughout the 421-square-kilometre park, but were only detected on five of the 91 cameras in a southern corner. In Tasmania, none of the cameras on the main island detected any pookila, which have not been seen there since 2000, but mice were confirmed on Flinders Island. "These surveys are often limited by access, so it's very plausible that the mice are still hanging on in [mainland] Tasmania," Ms Nieuwhof said, adding that the next phase of the project would broaden the search. Dubbed a "dumpling on legs", the pookila plays an outsized role in soil health and biodiversity. While some burrowing natives use cavities made by other animals or build simple burrows, the mouse is known for extensive and complex underground burrow systems. "This results in a lot of soil turnover, which is really important because it promotes things like litter decomposition and nutrient cycling, and eventually new plant growth," Ms Nieuwhof said. "They're basically little ecosystem engineers." With habitat loss driving the pookila's increasing isolation, the next phase of the two-year program is to genetically examine live-trapped specimens to ensure inbreeding does not further weaken the species. "If we do identify some populations with low genetic diversity, then we'll make use of conservation breeding programmes," Ms Nieuwhof said. "For instance, we'd take mice both from Goobang and other nearby populations and kind of slowly reintroduce some new genes into the population." A similar program is underway in Victoria, where seven of 12 historically known local populations are already extinct. Efforts to combat other major threats like feral predators and bushfires are also being tackled under a new conservation framework being designed in NSW, including ways to improve management of native ground cover and alter fire regimes.
