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It’s nighttime in the South Australian desert and a predator is using its big eyes and alert ears to track down its food. With its big brushy tail held high, it runs over the rocky ground after moths, scorpions and even birds. This is a kowari, a relative of the Tasmanian Devil that could fit in the palm of your hand. When day breaks, it heads home to a burrow it dug in the sand.

Molly Barlow is a researcher studying this amazing, endangered marsupial. She wants to know why kowari numbers are going down in the wild. She thinks that cats probably eat kowaris and cows might stomp on their burrows. But before Molly can be sure, she needs to know where the kowaris are. So Molly is studying how young kowaris spread out across the desert and set up their own territories.

For this experiment, Molly worked with a group of kowaris living in a fenced area that protects them from cats and cows. Then, she needed to trap young kowaris. Fortunately, kowaris love dog biscuits soaked in tuna oil! Then, she fits them with radio-tracking collars and lets them go.

Following the collars, Molly discovered that young kowaris didn’t move very far from their mothers. They liked to return to their mother’s burrow or share a burrow with their siblings before striking out on their own.

Molly’s study with young kowaris is just the beginning. She plans to repeat her experiment again to see if kowaris spread out differently when there are cats and cows around. This will help scientists and government workers protect this unique, pint-sized predator.

When Molly and other kowari researchers combined all their trapping results, they discovered some good news! The group of kowaris living in the fenced area had quadrupled in size in just two years! This goes to show that when we protect the kowari, it works.