potoroo – Go Birding

I know its been a long time between posts – same issues as last time with a post Covid funk and lack of motivation. I thought I would share a few of encounters with some smaller terrestrial mammals in Victoria over the past 6 months or so.

The first is Southern Brown Bandicoot at the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens. This has to be the easiest place to see this declining species with them sauntering around the picnic areas and the enclosed garden area. I have distinct memories of seeing them as a child near home in Frankston but unfortunately all that area is houses now. Cranbourne Botanic Gardens is a nice oasis in an area of increasing urban sprawl. Away from Cranbourne I find they are still reasonably common around Bayles in West Gippsland with an evening drive around the various back lanes usually getting a sighting or two. They have declined significantly elsewhere in Victoria.

Southern Brown Bandicoot

Two years ago I was successful in finding Long-footed Potoroos in North-East Victoria but I was yet to see the supposedly more common cousin, the Long-nosed Potoroo on the mainland (have seen in Tasmania). I decided to remedy this so tried a couple of spots in East Gippsland and was successful at the second site. Thermal scope was a game changer allowing me to pick them up easily even in thick cover. They are a charismatic little species and noticably smaller than the Long-footed Potoroo. This area is covered by the Southern Ark fox control area which is the largest wildlife protection project in Victoria. The success of this project has been shown with numerous camera trap records of both species of potoroo and both local species of bandicoot. I was very happy with my encounters with the Long-nosed Potoroos and was even able to take my son back a month or so later to see his first ones.

Long-nosed Potoroo

Eastern-barred Bandicoots used to be found in Western Victoria on the Volcanic Plains and nearly became extinct on the mainland with a few stragglers taken into captivity and bred up. Recently they have been released on Phillip Island and have apparently been doing very well. While they never historically occurred here the heavily modified farm habitat now seems perfect for them. My sister lives there and had commented that she had seen them many times so I went out for a night walk. We found many bandicoots (~20 or so) and I was able to get a few nice pictures. I understand further introductions of endangered species are planned for the island as it has been considered fox free for a number of years. Looking forward to seeing how things go over the next 10-20 years.

Eastern Barred Bandicoot

A common theme with all three of these species in Victoria is strong fox control! Long may it continue.

Probably my most wanted Australian mammal over the past couple of years has been the Long-footed Potoroo – a secretive denizen of remote forest locations in the North-East and far East of Victoria. I have had a couple of attempts to find this over the past couple of years and recently got close but no cigar. Having previously tried in East Gippsland and on hearing of some recent success stories in Northern Victoria I decided to have a crack up there. I was spending a few days in Mount Beauty and my mate Jim Wright was in Bright so we met up and headed out on a bit of an expedition. It was a fair drive through some magnificent country to get to a likely area. Jim has a fully kitted out 4wd which is quite a useful tool in this area.

Potoroo mobile

We arrived in the general area I wanted to explore and did a bit of recce – it was an area of Mountain and Alpine Ash with Snow Gums up high with some very nice old trees in the gullies. It looked as if it had avoided much of the fires over the past 20 years or so. We started spotlighting at about 1200m ASAL on foot right on zero dark thirty and within 10 minutes I had eyeshine on the ground on a small embankment above the road. Lifting binoculars I immediately saw it was a potoroo! We had perhaps 15 seconds of excellent binocular views before the animal melted away silently into the undergrowth. Needless to say I was ecstatic!! The animal was larger and more upright than I remember Long-nosed Potoroo’s being and was also darker – in some ways reminded me more of a Bettong. We did not see the feet on this view but the rest of the animal was seen very well. Further spotlighting in the immediate area got us Yellow-bellied and Sugar Glider and Bush Rat.

We drove a bit and spotlit other areas on foot getting more Yellow-bellied Gliders but not much else. Right on midnight we were thinking of calling it a night and were driving somewhere to setup the swags when we saw an animal on the road which in the distance I took for a Brush-tailed Possum – then it started hopping! We drove up and got excellent views of a large Long-footed Potoroo as it struggled to get up an embankment – its large feet and dark tail very evident. Eventually it made it up the embankment and hopped into the night. All in all a very successful night as we rolled out the swags. Up early and back – it was a very successful jaunt – maybe photos next time.

Potoroo habitat

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Potoroo success