14-05-2025
Scientists surprised to find possums in WA's Pilbara region
When zoologist Hannah Anderson travelled to Western Australia's Pilbara region to research threatened species she was not expecting to see the common brushtail possum.
Despite being one of the most abundant, widespread and frequently encountered Australian marsupials, little is known about their distribution in the north-west of the country.
Only 13 records of the species were publicly available in the Pilbara region until Ms Anderson, a senior zoologist at Biologic Environmental, uncovered many more.
"They're not a species people talk about in the Pilbara," she said.
Ms Anderson's team established 47 additional independent records for the region, which mostly came from riverine and rocky environments near Pannawonica in the south-west and the Yarrie mine site in the north.
"It's still low numbers, but a lot more than what was recorded on the online data repository map," she said.
Ms Anderson said the records provided a better understanding into the distribution of the Pilbara species, but further surveys and monitoring programs were needed to chart their population trends.
Edith Cowan University PhD student Shelby Middleton has also been researching the species in WA, and says little is known about possum populations in the Pilbara.
But her recent paper reveals a clue that could help conserve the species in similar environments.
The study was the first to discover the Pilbara and Mid West populations of common brushtail possums were genetically closer to the subspecies found on the east coast, South Australia and Central Australia than those in WA's South West.
"That means they are actually a completely different subspecies to what we previously thought," Ms Middleton said.
She said the brushtail possum was presumed extinct in Central Australia and that the genetics of the possums found in the Pilbara and Mid West were very closely related to what would have once inhabited the area.
Eventually the species may be able to help grow populations there, she said.
"This [research] could definitely have implications on what animals should be translocated in the future," Ms Middleton said.
"When they translocate these animals, they need to look at what are the best populations to source them from.
"It's really important to try and bring back these ecosystems that used to exist … before humans and cats came in and destroyed their environment."
Australian Wildlife Conservancy senior ecologist Jennifer Pierson said the research was "really exciting" and could help re-establish and supplement populations in arid zones.
She said possum populations from Dubbo and Kangaroo Island had been reintroduced into the Newhaven Sanctuary, north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, but their source habitats were vastly different.
"So having another group of possums that might have different adaptations to arid conditions is really encouraging for us," Dr Pierson said.
"It opens up more exciting opportunities about learning where we might be able to do it and access to more diversity for us to create really robust populations."
