This autumn saw regular Eastern barred bandicoot (EBB) trapping undertaken at the Summerland Peninsula in March and at Churchill Island and Fishers Wetland in April. This trapping is used for the benefit of the bandicoots in order to undertake vital health screening and to increasing the success of breeding programs to build the population spread across Phillip Island, Churchill Island and surrounding areas.

Across the three nights at Summerland Peninsula, the Nature Parks employees and volunteers had 46 captures of 30 individuals, 53% of which were seen for the first time. After low capture numbers during both the spring and autumn trapping last year, a choice was made to do a free feed for the species on the Peninsula, spreading food around trap locations the week prior to encourage more bandicoots into the areas and make the bandicoots more comfortable entering traps. This appears to have helped with almost twice as many captures this session compared to last year.

Across the three nights at Churchill Island, there were 70 captures of 42 individuals, 62% of which were seen for the first time, and at Fishers Wetland there were 26 captures of 15 individuals, 93% of which were seen for the first time. Free feeding was also conducted at Fishers Wetland to improve capture rates, resulting in almost twice as many captures compared to the spring trapping session. Many bandicoots caught across this session were in poor condition, presumably due poor food availability caused by low rainfall over the preceding weeks.

Across these two trapping sessions 29 volunteers contributed 310 hours over six days assisting with trap setting, research assisting, handling and free feeding. Bandicoots are continuing to spread across the island and have now been spotted as far as Rhyll. To support conservation efforts to increase Eastern barred bandicoot populations, please adopt a bandicoot through the Penguin Foundation.