Australian bandicoot back from the brink

Asmall nocturnal marsupial that once roamed Australia has been brought back from the brink of extinction after a decades-long conservation effort, authorities said yesterday.

The Eastern Barred Bandicoot populated the Victoria state until it was all but obliterated by non-native foxes, feral cats and habitat destruction. By 1989, there were just 150 animals left in the region, mostly scrounging an existence in rusted-out cars at a rubbish dump. Over the past three decades, multimillion dollar captive breeding and rewilding programmes have revived the population to an estimated 1,500 — bumping it off the state’s “extinct in the wild” list.