Another Very Endangered Australian Animal

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Wildlife, Biodiversity, Endangered, Nature

Ed Hessler

Here is another critter unheard of by me, the Kangaroo Island dunnart (genus Sminthopis). It is another in the large group of Australian marsupials. The dunnart is also a cryptic species (two or more distinct species classified as a single species which superficially look the same). 

When the dunnart's habitat was almost completely destroyed by Australia's bushfires of 2021 it was already critically endangered. From bad to worse.

A BBC video (4m 08s) introduces us to the dunnart, an ecologist who has studied them for four years but has never seen one in the wild, how the animals are being studied (observed indirectly) and measures being taken to protect them in their remaining habitat.