Woma python re-introduced to Australian nature reserve

From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Predators added to wildlife refuge

A conservation area near Roxby Downs for animals that are extinct in the wild in South Australia has been so successful that a natural predator is being introduced.

The arid recovery reserve borders the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in outback SA and is a refuge for the greater stick nest rat, burrowing bettong, greater bilby and western barred bandicoot.

The woma python is also endangered in Australia and 10 are about to introduced at the reserve.

Spokesman John Read says there are so many bilbies and bettongs that the pythons will not endanger the population.

“It seems a bit ironic that we are introducing a predator to the arid recovery reserve but what arid recovery is all about is recreating a natural system and we’ve now got hundreds of bilbies and close to a thousand burrowing bettongs,” he said.

Update January 2008: here.

Bilbies bring deserts back to life: here.

The gentle rabbit-like bilby – Australia’s stand-in for the Easter bunny – had an ancient relative that was a far more fearsome little beast, a new study has found: here.