Saving the chuditch from extinction

Twelve chuditch found in the Fitzgerald National Park will join 27 others on their very own charter flight directly to South Australia's Flinders Ranges tomorrow.

The flight is not a joy ride, but a relocation mission to reintroduce the carnivorous marsupial species into an area where it disappeared from more than a century ago.

The chuditch, or western quoll, was once found across 70 per cent of the country but is now seen only in the south-west of WA.

Department of Parks and Wildlife principal zoologist Manda Page said 39 chuditch would be released into the Flinders Ranges after 37 were successfully freed there last year.

Dr Page said a small number of the marsupial were collected from the Fitzgerald National Park for the first time.

"We didn't get any from the south coast last year, but it went so well last year that we decided we would get a better spread of the genetic variation, so we expanded the trapping to include the south coast," she said.

Dr Page said the chuditch had been fitted with radio tracking collars and microchips and would be monitored for the rest of the year.

"I think that if a good proportion of this group survive, that it might not be necessary to do a third release," she said.

Environment Minister Albert Jacob said he was proud WA was helping with the recovery of chuditch populations. "We hope … we can significantly reduce the risk of extinction," he said.