For the first time in over a century, a tiny carnivorous marsupial known for its unusual breeding strategy — where males die following the annual mating cycle — is roaming around Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary in far south-west NSW on Barkindji country. The Red-tailed Phascogale was driven to extinction in NSW by introduced cats and foxes – the primary driver of native mammal extinctions and ongoing declines in Australia.

A total of 93 Red-tailed Phascogales, also known as Bulku in the local Barkindji language, were reintroduced to the sanctuary, as part of a partnership between Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and Zoos South Australia.

The phascogales, 56 females and 37 males, were collected from a captive breeding program at Adelaide Zoo, where AWC staff and Keepers worked together to take morphometric measurements and conduct a health check and collar a subset of individuals. They then headed off on a seven-hour (530km) drive across the lower Murray Darling region to their new home.

According to AWC ecologists and Adelaide ZooKeepers, most of the phascogales slept soundly throughout the journey. A smoking ceremony was conducted by representatives from Barkindji people before the phascogales were awoken shortly after sundown, and one-by-one they were released into AWC’s Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary’s 8,000-hectare feral predator-free fenced area – one of the largest feral-free areas on mainland Australia.

“Restoring the Red-tailed Phascogale to Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary is an exciting opportunity to increase the threatened species’ population in NSW,” explained Dr Rachel Ladd, AWC Wildlife Ecologist. “Working with Adelaide Zoo, we’re slowly increasing the global population size of this threatened species while also helping to maintain and expose the phascogales to different environmental conditions across its former range in order to ensure it can adapt and survive in the future.”

“Arriving in May, means the Red-tailed Phascogales will be settled and ready to start mating during the July breeding season. We’re expecting to see some juveniles running around in the second half of the year, unfortunately though, as a Dasyuridae species, this also means all of the males will drop off from the stress of breeding activities.”

The Red-tailed Phascogale once occurred across more than half of the Australian continent but suffered a catastrophic range collapse mainly due to predation by introduced cats and foxes.

The phascogale was listed as extinct in NSW in 2016, with the last wild recording in 1866, when a specimen was obtained approximately 145 km from Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary. The species made a historic return to the state in 2021, when AWC with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service released 114 individuals (60 from Alice Springs Desert Park and 54 from Adelaide Zoo) inside a feral predator-free fenced area at nearby Mallee Cliffs National Park.

In a bid to conserve the Red-tailed Phascogale, AWC worked with Adelaide Zoo to establish a captive breeding program in 2021, with animals sourced from remnant populations in south-west Western Australia by AWC personnel. The breeding program has proven successful, with over 147 phascogales delivered over the last four years, 54 of which contributed to reestablishing the population at Mallee Cliffs National Park in 2022-23.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see red-tailed phascogales back in the wild at Scotia after more than a century,” said Mark Smith, Conservation Manager at Zoos SA. “This release is the culmination of years of dedicated work by the Zoos SA team to breed this remarkable species for conservation. Working with the AWC has allowed us to take that next vital step — moving animals from behind-the-scenes care into wild landscapes where they belong. It’s a proud moment for everyone involved, and a fantastic example of what can be achieved through collaboration to support the recovery of Australia’s native species.”

Twenty-six of the Red-tailed Phascogales were collared with small tracking transmitters before release at Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary, to monitor their movements and survival rate in the first six-to-eight weeks of release. Due to their very small size, light weight (<2 g) transmitters will be used by AWC ecologists to check in on individuals, with the collars to be removed after the initial tracking period. AWC will continue monitoring the population and estimates, if the release is successful, that the number of Red-tailed Phascogales could reach 1,400 individuals in the next decade.

At Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary, the phascogales joined four other threatened species that were reintroduced as part of a plan to restore locally-extinct species, they are the Greater Bilby, Burrowing Bettong, Numbat and Bridled Nailtail Wallaby.

This project has been assisted by the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust.

Species profile: Red-tailed Phascogale

The Red-tailed Phascogale is the most arid adapted of the three species of Phascogale in Australia. While once found across southern and central Australia, from western NSW to coastal WA, the Red-tailed Phascogale population contracted from eastern NSW in the mid-to-late 19^th century, from central Australia by 1920s and the deserts of WA in the 1970s.

Currently, the Red-tailed Phascogale is restricted to remnant woodlands in south-west WA. AWC has reintroduced the species to Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary in south-west WA, and Mallee Cliffs National Park in south-west NSW, where AWC works in partnership with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The Red-tailed Phascogale is a carnivore, consuming insects, small birds, mammals and occasionally, reptiles.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) is a global leader in conservation, providing hope to Australia’s wildlife with a science-informed, land management partnership model that delivers high impact results. AWC is a national leader in landscape scale conservation land management, reintroductions of threatened species and the establishment of feral predator-free areas.

Adelaide Zoo (Zoos SA) is a leading conservation organisation dedicated to protecting Australia’s unique wildlife through conservation breeding, research, and community engagement. With a strong focus on threatened species recovery, Zoos SA partners with organisations like AWC to breed, safeguard, and reintroduce native animals back into their natural habitats. Through innovative conservation programs and education, Zoos SA plays a vital role in securing a future for Australia’s biodiversity.

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