Hope for lowland Leadbeater’s possum as conservationists identify 34 in the wild

“It has taken decades of science and conservation work to achieve this significant milestone and shows that our recovery measures are working, with the end goal to restore self-sustaining Leadbeater’s possum populations,” Zoos Victoria chief executive Dr Jenny Gray said.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will on Tuesday launch a national recovery plan for Leadbeater’s possums at Healesville Sanctuary.

The plan comes two months after the Victorian government’s ban on native logging came into effect, and recognises the devastating effects logging has had on the Leadbeater’s habitat and populations.

“Sadly, historical timber harvesting in Victoria and bushfires have had a devastating impact on Leadbeater’s possum habitat,” Plibersek said.

The risk bushfires pose to the possums is considered so extreme the national plan flags translocating subpopulations to other suitable habitats around the Central Highlands.

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Plibersek will also announce the government will install 400 nesting boxes in the Central Highlands, and help fund translocation assessments for the size of the area the possums roam in the region and in East Gippsland.

“This new recovery plan, made in partnership with the Victorian government, will better protect the Leadbeater’s possum and help it thrive into the future,” she said.

“I am committed to protecting our precious species and leaving nature better off for our kids and grandkids.”

Leadbeater’s possums were named in 1867 after taxidermist Benjamin Leadbeater, and considered extinct until 1961.

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The Threatened Species Scientific Committee, basing its estimates on work by forestry expert David Lindenmayer and others, estimates 83 per cent of Leadbeater’s possums were lost between 2006 and 2024.

The committee, which provides independent scientific advice to the federal government, based its assessment on the decline in the number of large hollow-bearing trees – the possums’ habitats – due to fire and timber harvesting.

The Allan government has committed $2 million to the Faunal Emblems Program between 2023 and 2025 for targeted recovery plans for Leadbeater’s possums and the Helmeted Honeyeater.

“This breeding breakthrough is a credit to ongoing conservation efforts and a result of the Victorian government’s commitment to protecting our state faunal emblems,” state Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos said.

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