New hope for pygmy-possums
A mountain pygmy-possum - Burramys parvus Image: Australian Alps, Flickr CC-licensed Mt Buller’s Mountain Pygmy-possums have had some rare good news following the success of an emergency action to save the isolated population from extinction caused by declining genetic diversity.A team from the University of Melbourne, Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and an independent expert (Dean Heinze) took the action to genetically rescue a population of one of Australia’s rarest marsupials, the threatened Mountain Pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus) that has been isolated on Mt Buller for over 10,000 years.DSE scientist Ian Mansergh said “The team translocated six male Mountain Pygmy-possums from the genetically healthy wild population at Mt Hotham and temporarily releasing them at Mt Buller to breed with the local females in the wild, with the aim of improving the genetic health of the population.”Andrew Weeks from the Department of Genetics and Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne said “The action was...