The Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species (FAME) is celebrating an important conservation milestone, with red-tailed phascogales breeding in the wild in South Australia for the third consecutive year.
The result forms part of the Three Safer Havens Partnership between FAME and the South Australian Department for Environment and Water (DEW) Bounceback Program, an ambitious, landscape-scale conservation program working to restore threatened species and ecosystems across the northern ranges of South Australia.
A further 45 red-tailed phascogales were released into the Gawler Ranges Safer Haven in autumn 2026, bringing the total number reintroduced over the past three years to 189 animals.
Recent monitoring has recorded 20 female red-tailed phascogales carrying 137 wild-born pouch young, a significant increase from the nine females and 54 pouch young recorded in 2025. More females are also being recorded on monitoring cameras, while wild-born animals are now being captured through the monitoring program.
Importantly, the establishing population in the Gawler Ranges is the only wild population of red-tailed phascogales outside Western Australia.
FAME CEO Tracy McNamara said three consecutive years of breeding demonstrated what could be achieved through ambitious conservation, strong partnerships and sustained philanthropic investment.
“This is a bold and ambitious project, and results like these are incredibly encouraging. They reflect the science behind the program, the dedication of the passionate ecologists working in the field and the commitment of the people who have backed this work.
FAME is proud to be a funding partner in this work, made possible by our donors and supporters who understand that changing the trajectory of a threatened species takes commitment over time.”
The Gawler Ranges Safer Haven is unfenced, with the DEW Bounceback Program undertaking intensive, integrated landscape-scale predator management to keep feral cat and fox numbers low and give reintroduced species the best opportunity to survive, establish and breed.
During 2026, this included annual aerial Eradicat® baiting together with targeted cage trapping and shooting. This sustained work has continued to keep feral predator numbers low across the safer haven and is fundamental to establishing the conditions required for red-tailed phascogales to persist in the landscape.
Bounceback Program Coordinator Dr Matt Heard said the monitoring results provided encouraging evidence that the population was establishing.
“The capture of females from several different releases as well as wild-born individuals shows that, with the right management, red-tailed phascogales are able to survive in the area and breed over multiple years.”
“While this species has its challenges in the wild, particularly from feral cats, the increase in breeding females and pouch young this year provides good evidence to the ecological team that the population is establishing in the Gawler Ranges Safer Haven.”
Dr Heard explains further:
“By using multiple methods to control feral cats in the safer haven, we are giving
this new population the best chance to successfully establish and thrive, as well
as providing benefits to a range of other species in the environment.”
The Three Safer Havens Partnership encompasses conservation work across the Gawler Ranges, Ikara-Flinders Ranges and Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges national parks, bringing together science, landscape-scale threat management, species reintroductions, habitat restoration, long-term monitoring and philanthropic investment.
FAME acknowledges the dedicated DEW Bounceback ecologists and field teams delivering this work on the ground, and the donors, supporters and project stakeholders whose investment and commitment make long-term conservation programs such as this possible.
ENDS
Further information or comment:Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species Ltd (FAME)Tracy McNamara, Chief Executive Officer
T: +61 8 83741744, M: 0411446924, E: tracy.mcnamara@fame.org.au
BouncebackDr Matt Heard, Bounceback Program Coordinator
M: 0499 657 905, E: Matt.Heard@sa.gov.au
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Red-tailed phascogale
The red-tailed phascogale is a small, carnivorous marsupial that once occurred across much of arid and semi-arid Australia but is now largely restricted to south-west Western Australia.
The species is listed as Vulnerable nationally under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Red-tailed phascogales are primarily arboreal, sheltering in tree hollows and feeding on insects and other small invertebrates.
Females can produce large litters, while males typically die following their first breeding season, giving the species an unusual and highly seasonal life cycle.
Red-tailed phascogales were reintroduced to the Gawler Ranges in South Australia as part of the Three Safer Havens Partnership, with 189 animals released over three years.
The Gawler Ranges population is the only wild population of red-tailed phascogales outside Western Australia, with wild breeding now recorded for three consecutive years.
Three Safer Havens
Three Safer Havens is an ambitious conservation partnership between FAME and the South Australian Department for Environment and Water’s Bounceback Program.
The program spans Gawler Ranges, Ikara-Flinders Ranges and Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges national parks, covering approximately 800,000 hectares of South Australia’s northern ranges.
Rather than relying solely on fenced sanctuaries, the partnership is working at landscape scale to create conditions in which threatened native species can survive and establish in the wild.
The program brings together intensive feral predator and herbivore management, threatened species reintroductions, habitat restoration, threatened plant recovery and long-term ecological monitoring.
More than 200 monitoring cameras are deployed across the Three Safer Havens landscape, helping ecologists track threatened species and measure the effectiveness of conservation interventions.
FAME provides philanthropic funding for the partnership, made possible by its donors and supporters, while DEW’s Bounceback ecologists and field teams provide the scientific expertise and on-ground delivery.
Image 1 – Healthy female red-tailed phascogale caught during the recent surveys (credit – T. Moyle)Image 2 – Seven red-tailed phascogale pouch young counted in the recent surveys. Females can carry up to 8 young per breeding season (credit – T. Moyle)
Image 3 – Red-tailed phascogale nesting in natural tree hollow in the Gawler Ranges Safer Haven (credit – T. Moyle)
