Oops, those silly duffers in the Victorian logging industry. Look at that, they’ve gone and logged a major high conservation area and last refuge of an endangered species again! How could they be so unlucky?

The home of the long-footed potoroo, up to 400 square metres of Errinundra National Park has apparently been levelled by loggers. This small, rare member of the kangaroo family has a very limited range, and was only officially described in 1978, when the first live animals were captured. The 300 to 400 year old forest just logged was also home to other endangered wildlife, such as powerful owls and tiger quolls, similarly on their last legs, along with at least 30 other mammal species. The “error” was discovered by conservationists.

As mentioned in my previous post (Logging to Extinction) this kind of “mistake” - the logging of major conservation value, old-growth forest - seems to happen with remarkable frequency, and probably far more often than it is reported. The list of extinct Australian animals is already distressingly long and great care is needed to prevent further extinctions, particularly in sensitive locations.

(On a positive sidenote another related animal, Gilbert’s potoroo, from Western Australia, was rediscovered in 1994, having not been seen since 1879.)

Picture from Department of the Environment and Heritage.

Labels: clear-felling, conservation, extinction, Logging, potoroo