General description of the species

The Kowari or Brush-tailed Marsupial-Rat, Dasyuroides byrnei, is a carnivorous and nocturnal marsupial. It lives on gibber plains and shrubland between sand dunes and river channels in western Queensland and north-eastern South Australia. The Kowaris are thought to live in small colonies in burrow complexes (Aslin 1974). They feed on insects, small birds, reptiles, amphibians (desert frogs) and small mammals.
In Australia they mate from April to December. In captivity, the Kowaris are polyoestrous and may carry a second litter in the same year after the first litter becomes independent at six months (Aslin 1981).
The animals have a gestation period of 30-36 days (Woolley 1971 and Aslin 1974) and can carry up to six young. In the laboratory the young are weaned at about 110 days. They attain sexual maturity at 235 days (Aslin 1981). Kowaris can survive up to six years in captivity. Diseases which sometimes affect a captive colony are cancer or toxoplasmosis (Attwood and Woolley in Woolley 1971).
 The current status of Kowaris is Endangered (Lim 1992). Their distribution is restricted to the Lake Eyre Basin in western Queensland and north-eastern South Australia (Lim 1992). The Kowari does not occur in any reserve anywhere in its known distribution as is not the case of any other endangered mammal species in arid zones. There are probably different reasons for the decline of Kowaris.
Many predators have a high density in the habitat of the Kowaris because of the large number of rabbits and cattle there. When the rabbits die off and the stock are removed during droughts the predatoers are often forced to seek alternative native prey (Lim 1992).
Cattle grazing affects and destroys the vegetation of these arid zones. The rabbits affect the quality and productivity of the ecosystem and reduce the small native vertebrate and arthropod prey density (Lim 1992).
Another threat for the habitat of the Kowaris are the highways which run through the gibber plains. The number of Kowaris, killed on the roads, has increased in recent years.
As in captive populations, diseases like toxoplasmosis are also a threat to the wild population (Attwood and Woolley in Woolley 1971).

The situation of the EEP

At the moment there are about 150 animals in the EEP. The whole European population is almost entirely descended from the captive colony from Adelaide, Australia, which has been started in the early 70ties. Almost all their founders have been caught in south-western Queensland. The European population of kowaris started with the import of some animals to Rotterdam Zoo in the mid-70ties. There has been a continious growth in the number of births between 1987 and 1994. During the last few years the breeding had to be reduced due to space problems and now there are some breeding problems. There is the danger that the population gets to old now. Until 1996 Erlangen university had the biggest breeding colony in Europe. After this colony had to be disbanded the space problems have increased. So it is very difficult to increase the number of kowaris to the wanted number of 250 in the EEP if we don't find more zoos to participate in the EEP.