Arabic version: فيلم عن حماية الحياة البرية في حزام القمح يصل إلى مهرجان عالمي

According to ABC News, a documentary about a decade-long effort to rehabilitate threatened wildlife at Western Australia’s Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary has been selected for the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival.

Back to the Bush, made by Australian Wildlife Conservancy photographer and videographer Brad Leue, draws on hundreds of hours of footage recorded at the sanctuary, 360 kilometres north-east of Perth. The 21-minute film follows the project to reintroduce 10 threatened species within a predator-free fenced area.

Leue said the film offered a chance to share Australia’s biggest reintroduction project with a global audience. Recording small, nocturnal animals required unmanned video camera traps, late-night stake-outs and creative approaches to capture natural behaviour.

The reintroduced burrowing animals, including quolls, have changed the landscape, Leue said. He described them as “ecosystem engineers”, with pits and burrows becoming visible across the sanctuary.

AWC senior wildlife ecologist Bryony Palmer said eight of the 10 species were now present at Mt Gibson and most had thriving populations. She said the next stage would be to seek to establish some species beyond the predator-free boundary, adding that “the work never stops.”