TINY SURVIVOR: One of the pygmy possums photographed recently on the Bogong High Plains.

Camping expedition uncovers endangered pygmy possum

Written by ALEX CRAIG.

KIEWA Kidz, the local branch of Roots and Shoots, recently held a camping expedition to the Bogong High Plains in an attempt to meet the endangered mountain pygmy possum.

The club members and their families, led by Parks Victoria’s Kevin Cosgriff, camped at the Pretty Valley Camping area in the Alpine National Park, then met up with researcher Dean Heinze, on Mt McKay.

Mr Heinze works for the Department of Primary Industries and Water in Tasmania and has been monitoring the Mountain pygmy possum for over ten years at various sites on the Bogong High Plains, and was in the area for the yearly monitoring of populations.

Fortunately for the success of the expedition, Mr Heinze found a pigmy possum in one of his traps, and was able to show it to club members as he talked about its diet, habitat and how it is surviving after the 2003 and 2006/7 fires.

The past two years have seen very low numbers, with only two individuals caught in this population this year, but as the two caught were breeding females, it was considered a good sign for the future.

Mr Heinze explained that the numbers are down, probably because of loss of habitat which was burnt in both 2003 and 2006/7, and reduction in the Bogong moth population due to drought.

The Bogong moth makes up a large part of the possum’s diet.

The monitoring that Mr Heinze is doing is funded by Falls Creek and Mount Hotham resorts as well as the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Parks Victoria undertakes a predator control program to reduce the impact of foxes on the possum, and Falls Creek and Mount Hotham resort managements contribute to this program as well.

The predator control program is very important, particularly in this post fire time, as the vegetation recovers to provide cover and food to the possum.

"The Kiewa Kidz were very excited to actually meet a real live mountain pygmy possum, especially in a population that is so endangered," Mr Cosgriff said.

Kiewa Kidz will continue their investigations into the pygmy possum over the coming summer.