A decade-long research project led by the Western Australian Museum, supported by Bioplatforms Australia through the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), has uncovered two previously unrecognised species of short-nosed bandicoots, reshaping our understanding of Australia’s native mammals.
The project began in 2016, when Western Australian Museum Terrestrial Zoology Curator Dr Kenny Travouillon received a Churchill Fellowship to examine historical bandicoot collections in museums across Europe and the United States. It grew into a broader project in collaboration with the South Australian Museum, combining DNA analysis and morphological measurements of museum specimens from Australia and overseas to reassess the diversity and distribution of brown bandicoots.
The study identified two additional species: the Little Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon microtis), a South Australian species that became extinct around 100 years ago, and the New Guinea Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon moresbyensis), previously considered a subspecies of the Northern Brown Bandicoot. Researchers also found that the Quenda (Isoodon fusciventer) once had a much wider distribution, extending into South Australia, and described seven new subspecies across three bandicoot species.
These findings may prompt reassessments of the conservation status of several bandicoot groups. The team will now turn to revising the taxonomy of long-nosed bandicoots (Perameles), a group that has experienced multiple extinctions since European settlement.
The project was also supported by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and the Australian Biological Resources Study, with contributions from researchers and institutions across Australia and assistance from the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation’s Uunguu Rangers.
Read the research paper, Genetic and morphological reassessment of the genus Isoodon and description of new species and subspecies, in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy.