In a welcome spot of good news, researchers at Arid Recovery in South Australia have discovered that their small population of endangered kowaris has almost quadrupled in size.
This is a promising sign for kowari conservation, and it gives researchers the opportunity to pinpoint why this unique Australian marsupial is declining in the wild.
Molly Barlow, who is studying kowaris at Arid Recovery as a PhD student, describes them as, “somewhat mouse-like with a narrow head, big alert eyes, pinkish nose… and a distinctive black brushy tail.” As marsupials they have pouches, and as pint-sized predators related to quolls and Tasmanian devils, they have very sharp teeth.
Summarised as “charismatic and quirky” by researchers, kowaris are now found in less than 20% of their former range. They appear to be threatened by a combination of human impacts including feral cats, cattle grazing and climate change.
As Australia’s largest feral-proof fenced reserve, Arid Recovery provides a safe haven and a controlled setting to study kowaris.
In 2022, 12 kowaris were translocated into one of Arid Recovery’s six paddocks to establish an ‘insurance population.’ By the end of 2024, researchers had trapped 47 individuals, and some had spread to the surrounding paddocks.
Understanding this spreading ability or ‘dispersal’ is at the centre of Barlow’s research. This summer, she conducted a pilot study with radiotracking collars on juvenile kowaris and found a few surprises.
“Individuals moved much smaller distances that I expected, and much smaller than those exhibited by other dasyurid [quoll and devil relatives],” Barlow tells Cosmos. “I witnessed juveniles alternating between denning alone and denning with siblings or their mother – there appeared to be gradual separation happening rather than one distinctive dispersal phase.”
Barlow is careful to say that the study was too small to make broad statements about the species just yet. She plans to expand on the experiment next summer with aims to study how dispersal changes later in the year, how feral predators alter dispersal, and how resource availability affects dispersal.
“We need to identify the extent to which both predators and introduced herbivores impact survival, as well as the ability for kowaris to utilise certain areas or habitat types,” says Barlow. “Research in this space will therefore also be very important in safeguarding the species.”
