Brush-tailed Phascogales (Phascogale tapoatafa) are a small carnivorous Australian marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. There are three species which are found in various parts of Australia. The males live for only one year, dying after a period of frenzied mating and females die after approx two years. All three species are listed as either Near Threatened or Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Lisa Albino (a recipient of an OFF research grant) has investigated the requirements for survival of these marsupials, as part of her Master of Research, on an agricultural site in the Hunter Valley near Newcastle. Her research included the investigation of effective survey methods to establish the presence of phascogales, particularly the orientation of cameras, the species and size of trees preferred for food and nesting, the home range for males and females and the impact of predators, particularly feral cats.
She hopes that the results, when published, will inform current and future land owners of the importance of maintaining pockets of old and dead trees on their land and that agricultural use can coexist with habitats for wildlife conservation.
This presentation can be viewed on OFF’s YouTube channel here. Note that sub-titles are available on this video
PROMO
Presented by Lisa Albino (UNSW postgraduate student and OFF 2024 grant recipient).
As part of her Master of Research degree at the University of Technology Sydney Lisa Albino is exploring the tree usage and home range of the threatened brush-tailed phascogale within a highly fragmented agricultural landscape in the Hunter Valley, NSW. In 2023, five phascogales (three males and two females) were radio-tracked to study their habitat preferences and movement patterns. The research also examined whether camera orientation impacts phascogale detection and investigated their ability to recognise cats as predators. This study highlights the importance of old growth and dead trees to the conservation of this species.
Lisa completed her Biological sciences degree at the University of Wollongong. She then volunteered with a variety of different research projects to gain fieldwork experience, working with Tasmanian Devils, quolls, mulgaras, bilbies, platypus, koalas and perenties