Lithgow's Secret Creek Cafe may just be the place that helps to save the critically endangered mountain pygmy possum, as the area becomes home to a new breeding program.
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Scientists have come up with a plan to take some of the possums from their alpine habitat and introduce them to a warmer, lowland rainforest environment.
With the clock ticking on the animal's future, scientists from UNSW's School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES), have wasted no time in starting the breeding program in Lithgow, in a bid to get the diminutive possums acclimatised to what they believe will be more hospitable, lowland surroundings.
UNSW Professor and palaeontologist Mike Archer, has led the research into the Riversleigh fossil deposits since 1976 and said the mountain pygmy possum is one of the species most vulnerable to climate change in Australia, and faces extinction if alpine snowfalls continue to decline as climate modelling predicts.
"These possums are one of the few mammals in Australia that hibernate during the winter," he said.
"When temperatures drop and food resources become scarce, they hibernate deep within humid rock piles. Snow cover on these rock piles provides critically important insulation from the subzero air above. The rockpiles also provide shelter in summer when temperatures outside can rise to lethal levels."
The pygmy possum numbers are at a critical level, with estimates of no more than 2500 living in alpine regions of NSW and Victoria. Making the situation even more dire for the miniature marsupial is that the bogong moth, the main food source it relies on when it comes out of hibernation, is also dwindling in numbers.
In response, Professor Archer and his colleagues from UNSW, University of Sydney, University of New England and various local and international environmental organisations have hatched a plan to save the mountain pygmy-possum by establishing a new colony of these animals in lowland areas of dense forest.
There are now two breeding pairs in Lithgow which are being maintained in temperatures that would have suited the ancestral species of Burramys.
"We've raised $150,000 so far to construct a breeding facility. We anticipate using closed circuit TV to monitor these possums in their individual enclosures," Professor Archer said.
Associate Lecturer at UNSW's School of BEES Dr Haley Bates said the sanctuary at Lithgow will also provide more opportunity to study the animal, as there was "still so much more to learn about them than we currently understand".
"This will also provide an opportunity to introduce the Lithgow colony to potential food species they will encounter when they are eventually released and monitored in suitable protected areas of lowland forest," she said.
The group is aiming to start with a colony of about 25 individuals.
If the project is deemed a success and it can be shown that the mountain pygmy possum can establish a foothold in a more temperate environment, Professor Archer anticipates that other threatened animals could be rescued in this same way.
The researchers are hoping to raise more funding for the mountain pygmy possum translocation project and expect to have a proper breeding facility built by early next year.
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