Baby boom helps bettongs bounce back from the brink

Brush-tailed bettongs had been locally extinct on SA's Yorke Peninsula for more than 100 years. (HANDOUT/NORTHERN AND YORKE LANDSCAPE BOARD)

The scrubland of South Australia's Yorke Peninsula is brimming with the pitter-patter of little marsupial paws as a bettong baby boom brings the species back from the brink of extinction.

In a recent monitoring study, more than 95 per cent of female brush-tailed bettongs in the Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park were found with young in their pouches.