By Potoroo Palace staff
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POTOROO Palace is home to both bettongs and potoroos - plus wild lyrebirds and bandicoots who dwell nearby - and is playing an important role in helping to increase the gene pool and in educating visitors about these less well known native animals.
The value of our little marsupial diggers must never be underestimated.
Scientists are discovering just how important these animals are to Australian ecosystems.
Marsupials such as the bettong and potoroo, who look a bit like kangaroos in miniature, as well as bandicoots, can spend all night digging for dinner on the forest floor and consequently bury large amounts of leaf litter in a single night.
Lyrebirds too are extremely important in turning over the forest’s compost daily.
The lyrebirds’ foraging reduces forest fuel loads, which in turn can reduce the risk of life-threatening fires, researchers from La Trobe University have found.
Add to this work force the insects, their larvae, termites and fungi, all of whom are constantly devouring leaves, twigs and even logs.
Sadly, there are many threats to our native forest gardeners and scientists warn that inappropriate fire patterns could mean more losses of threatened species across Australia.
University of Tasmania Professor Chris Johnson said for threatened species it is the combination of ongoing habitat loss and more intense fires that can be fatal.
Reports published by the CSIRO and BirdLife Australia cite "inappropriate fire regimes" as threatening more than 50 Australian mammal and 50 Australian bird species.
Climate change is also said to be playing a role, and introduced species pose one of the greatest threats to Australia’s fauna.
Giving dingoes a hand could help.
Evidence shows dingoes control invasive species - particularly cats and foxes - and free of charge!
They offer both an efficient and compassionate method of population control.
The conservation of dingoes offers a way forward that is cost-effective, sustainable and ethical.