Gliders & Bandicoots excursion

Year 12 Environmental Science Excursion - Gliders & Bandicoots

On Monday afternoon on the 2nd May, the Year 12 Environmental Science class set out on an excursion to Ecolinc and Mount Rothwell Sanctuary. 

At Ecolinc the students explored the services provided by the ecosystem of the western volcanic grasslands, carried out an analysis of mammalian hair samples, used software modeling to look at the causes of decline of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot and even met the resident Sugar Glider. 

In the evening we headed over to Mt Rothwell Wildlife Sanctuary - a fox and rabbit proof sanctuary near the YouYangs. This sanctuary is home to many endangered species such as the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, the Brush-tail Rock Wallaby and the Spotted Quoll. At the sanctuary we carried out a habitat survey of the grassy woodland area and took part in a night time spotlighting walk. The spotlighting walk was amazing as we saw this grassland truly come to life! We were blown away by the volume of marsupials that scurried or hopped through the grass. We observed Bettongs, Wallabies, Bandicoots, Quolls, Barn Owls and even a Sugar Glider in mid ‘flight’. The pictures really don’t do this place justice. 

The conservation efforts carried out at the sanctuary have meant that the Eastern Barred Bandicoots conservation status on the mainland has been upgraded from ‘extinct in the wild’ to ‘endangered’.