Marsupials

As few as 120 Gilbert's potoroos remain in the wild, so when two new animals were found on Middle Island off the WA coast, it was a cause for celebration. 

The possums were hand picked by ecologists on Kangaroo Island on the basis of their chances of survival in the sanctuary.

Dozens of possums are making a new home in Central Australia after being flown hundreds of kilometres from Kangaroo Island, as ecologists seek to re-establish a brushtail population in the Red Centre.

The tiny new brush-tailed rock wallaby arrivals were discovered by elated rangers during an annual check as part of a breeding program at the Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary on the New South Wales Mid North Coast.

The state's Conservation Regulator launches a probe after the bodies of dozens of adult and juvenile kangaroos are found scattered across land near Bendigo.

The "marsupial lion" Thylacoleo emerging from its den.

A genetic map of the bilby could help us understand how many of the elusive species are still alive and how to combat inbreeding.

Claude the leaf thief is back for more and it seems there is no stopping this brazen koala — now stealing his booty in broad daylight and bringing his mates to munch.

Koalas are easy to identify, but really hard to spot. To help conserve the species, citizen science is being used on a national scale for the first time to collect important information on koala numbers, habitat and health.

Just over a decade ago, an outback cattle station worker in the NT stumbled across a rare diprotodon fossil sticking out of the red soil. Now fondly known as Shirley, scientists have discovered how old the marsupial is.

In March, Ipswich City Council quietly approved a housing plan, which will see almost 2,000 homes built on native bushland. A resident has now penned a letter to nature broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, inviting him to visit the forest on his next Australian tour.

They have a reputation for being lazy and sleeping all day, but this koala made a surprise entry in this year's Ironman Australia triathlon at Port Macquarie.

Found as an orphan in Tasmania in 1989, Wain the wombat — also known as Mr Wine — is shuffling toward his mid-30s at a zoo in Japan, exceeding the average age of his wild counterparts by an estimated 20 years.

It's claimed a wombat can run faster than any human over a distance of 100 metres. Now, an exhaustive ABC investigation has tracked down the truth of the 40kph sprinting wombat myth. 

Most Australians will never have heard of the kakarratul, an elusive silky mole that burrows in the desert and has no eyes. Now a growing threat is shrinking its habitat.

The eastern barred bandicoot was formerly extinct in the wild on the Australian mainland, but an increase in numbers on Phillip Island is giving conservationists cause to celebrate.

Research from Charles Sturt University and the University of Western Australia shows quolls living close to mines are more vulnerable than those in undisturbed habitats. 

Maybe you will intuitively know the answer to our science quiz questions. Or you could blitz it because you've been keeping up with the news over the past month.

A program re-introducing brush-tailed bettongs to a conservation area in the Pilliga State Forest shows promise, after an east-coast extinction lasting more than 100 years.

There was once thought to be fewer than 1,000 numbats left in the wild, but a new study in southern Western Australia suggests that number is far greater.