Can fire revive a species? The New Holland Mouse (or Pookila, derived from the Ngarigo word bugila) is a small native rodent with large dark eyes, soft rounded ears, and a long dusky-brown tail. The mouse's dorsal fur is grey-brown with white-grey underparts.
At our Friendly Beaches Reserve we've teamed up with the truwana rangers to reintroduce cultural burning in the hope of creating an ideal habitat for the mouse.
Located in Tasmania’s east, Friendly Beaches is part of a coastal lowland heathland network. This habitat is a favourite for the New Holland Mouse as it feeds on a variety of seeds, flowers, fungi, and small invertebrates.
They nest in sandy-soil burrows and are found along the south-eastern Australian coast, from Tasmania to south-east Queensland. They’re range has drastically declined and their habitat is fragmented. Threats to the New Holland Mouse include loss of habitat, inappropriate fire regimes, predation from cats, foxes and introduced rodents.
Eighty-seven years ago today, the extinction of the Thylacine brought light to the need to protect our unique flora and fauna. Today, just beyond the spotlight, adjacent to the headlines, are hundreds of other species in need of our attention.
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