Wildlife Australia - Spring 2017

Mountain pygmy-possums gorge on

Bogong moths and seeds in summer and

can double their body weight as they

store up fat for some 7 months or more

of hibernation.

FAST FACTS

MOUNTAIN PYGMY-POSSUM

(BURRAMYS PARVUS)

Status: Critically Endangered (IUCN 2016). Total population

estimated at 2405 individuals.

Appearance: The largest of the pygmy-possums at around

45 g. Mega cute with prominent ears. Covered in dense,

fine fur that is grey-brown on the back and cream on the

underside. Males have a tawny orange tinge in breeding

season. The tail is long and prehensile.

Habitat: Considered snow-dependent and confined to cool,

deep boulderfields, or tors and boulder scatters around

rocky summits and associated shrubby heathland featuring

mountain plum-pine above 1195 m in Kosciuszko NP, NSW,

and above 1400 m in two locations in the Victorian Alps.

The three known populations are considered genetically

distinct, isolated by low-elevation valleys.

Diet: Bogong moths, mountain plum-pine, invertebrates,

seeds and fruit.

Lifestyle: Nocturnal, terrestrial (although a good climber,

especially of flowering trees in the subalpine zone). Known

to hibernate in winter. Young are raised after snow melt.

Threats: Habitat degradation and fragmentation relating to

ski industry and hydro-electric infrastructure, bushfire, and

invasive weeds. Red fox and feral cat predation. Increased

warming and early snow melt may result in unviable second

litters with offspring unable to accumulate the fat reserves

required to survive winter.

Conservation efforts: Habitat rehabilitation. Weed and

predator control. Genetic testing. Tracking and monitoring

of wild populations. Captive-breeding program at Healesville

Sanctuary, Victoria.

The mountain pygmy-possum is the only living species in

the Burramys genus. Photo: Mel Schroder

SNAPSHOT

The site of the lowest mountain pygmy-possum capture in the Australian

Alps so far – in natural scree above the Tumut River, downstream of the

Tumut Ponds Dam, at an altitude of 1195 m. Photo: Martin Schulz

August1966, some annoying creatures in the University Ski Club

hut at Mt Higginbotham, Victoria, changed all that. These critters

weren’t rats or pesky antechinuses; they were live mountain

pygmy-possums! Right there, in a ski hut used by biologists

and other academics in the midst of a prime ski area, was an

‘extinct’ species now made extant. The first live capture was soon

made: in a trap that Joan Dixon, then curator of mammals at

the National Museum of Victoria, had forgotten to bait. In any

case, normal bait (peanut butter, rolled oats and honey) doesn’t

work for this contrary pygmy-possum, which prefers walnuts. The

first NSW individual was trapped four years later, in early 1970,

in southern Kosciuszko NP. Subsequent trapping revealed this

marsupial was patchily distributed across the Victorian and NSW

Alps, at altitudes above 1400 m on Mt Bogong, the Bogong High

Plains and Mt Higginbotham, and in a small section of southern

Kosciuszko NP at above 1600 m between South Ramshead in the

Thredbo area, north to Gungartan Pass. Just 21 years ago, a new

population was discovered on Mt Buller, another popular skiing

area. Could it occur elsewhere? More surprises were to follow.

Back to the trap

When Gabriel arrived, she agreed with my identification, and we

both sent photos to senior threatened species officer and mountain

pygmy-possum expert Dr Linda Broome, who quickly confirmed it:

there were mountain pygmy-possums in northern Kosciuszko NP!

What’s more, the one in my hand was a pregnant female, indicating

that a population must be present. But how? The area didn’t tick

any of the boxes for normal mountain pygmy-possum habitat.

It was trapped in Happy Jacks Valley, on a track snaking above a

massive spoil dump some 400 m below the 1600 m lower elevation

limit of breeding populations in the south of the park. Two nights

later, another pregnant female was trapped 80 m further up the

track. If mountain pygmy-possums were fossicking about this track,

there must be further populations in northern Kosciuszko, too.

On the scent

Further trapping in Happy Jacks Valley in January 2011 captured

11 individuals – four adult males, four immature males and one

immature female – at altitudes 1220–1310 m above sea level (asl)

on three different spoil dumps and intervening natural scree areas.

We were on the scent!

Linda explored further afield, searching typical higher-altitude

basalt boulderfield habitat with large numbers of aestivating

Bogong moths and the mountain plum-pine. Success! She trapped

the species on the slopes of Bolton’s Hill, above Happy Jacks

Creek valley, Rough Creek headwaters, and at Snow Ridge, south

of Cabramurra. Surprisingly, the largest site was within walking

distance from the town of Cabramurra, on a fabulous boulderfield

bisected by a sealed road. Many a scientist and naturalist had driven

past but never thought to explore!

20 | Wildlife Australia | SPRING 2017