CANBERRA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Australian experts at a three-day bushfire workshop have established recovery strategies for wildlife on Kangaroo Island.
Almost a third of Kangaroo Island, in the state of South Australia, was burned by bushfire that raged between December and February, devastating wildlife and infrastructure and killing two people.
In the wake of the fires, Australia's Threatened Species Commissioner Sally Box identified the Kangaroo Island dunnart, a small marsupial, as the species most in need of assistance.
The workshop has produced strategies for the recovery of the dunnart, Kangaroo Island Glossy Black Cockatoo, Green Carpenter bee and Kangaroo Island echidna.
"We have been working with local partners on Kangaroo Island for five years now, supporting them with the science and tools they need to effectively manage threatened species including the KI Dunnart," Brendan Wintle, Director of the National Environmental Science Program, said in a media release.
"The scale and intensity of the fires on Kangaroo Island has, sadly, pushed back years of dedicated conservation efforts for species such as the KI Glossy Black Cockatoo, (which lost 80 percent of its feeding habitat in the fires). We are here to continue helping Kangaroo Island conservation managers with this massive new challenge they face," he said.
Ecologists estimated that the KI dunnart population had fallen to fewer than 500 before the devastating fires.
A 35 hectare fenced area has been established on the island to protect dunnarts from feral cats, their biggest predators.
