The recent discovery of a chuditch near Perth has renewed hopes that this threatened animal is making a comeback, New sightings reveal the mammal may not only be returning to the Perth area but also to other parts of the State. Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) wildlife officer Rick Dawson often receives calls from people who think they've seen threatened wildlife. So when he received a call from a resident of Wandi, Kwinana, to report a chuditch (Dasyurus geoffroyii) sighting, Pack advised that it was probably a bandicoot. After all, there had been no officially recorded captures of live chuditch in the Perth metropolitan area for years. Clearing for urban expansion and pressure from introduced predators had long wiped out any significant populations of this species on the Swan Coastal Plain.
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