Echidnas are turning up again on Aboriginal-owned Lungtalanana

ABC News reported on November 5, 2026, that echidnas are being recorded again on Lungtalanana, also known as Clarke Island, in the Furneaux Group. The island, about 8,230 hectares, returned to Aboriginal ownership in 2005. Pakana ranger Tasha Cooper found one curled in a feral-cat trap in September, the first echidna seen in person on the island in decades. She called the moment overwhelming. Trail cameras have since recorded echidnas at four separate locations.

A camera in 2023 caught two images months apart, noticed in 2024 because of the volume of footage. That was the first sighting in decades, after a 2014 bushfire burned 98 percent of the island's vegetation and raised fears the animals were gone. WWF Australia, which supports the Aboriginal-led restoration, had called the 2023 animal "Australia's loneliest" echidna. Another image came in 2025, and three more this year, before Cooper's encounter.

University of Tasmania specialist Stewart Nicol told ABC that echidnas are hard to count without tracking. Given the island's size and four or five sightings, he said he would be surprised if there were fewer than a dozen, and that there would probably be more than 20 or 30. That is his judgment, not a census. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre launched the Lungtalanana Restoration Project last month, covering weed removal, wildlife tracking, cat control, and a hope of returning locally extinct species such as Bass Strait wombats, Bennett's wallabies, and long-nosed potoroos. Those returns have not happened yet. Ranger Tooarn Brown said cats have to go before major rehabilitation. The news is the sightings and the project now underway.