A group of endangered carnivorous marsupials have been released on an island near Esperance in an effort to expand a small population established last year.

Scientists released 35 dibblers on the predator-free, Gunton Island, east of Esperance in the Recherche Archipelago.

The small carnivorous creatures are part of the family that includes the Tasmanian devil and the extinct Tasmanian tiger.

Dibblers could once be found from Shark Bay to Eyre Peninsular in South Australia, but habitat destruction and predation from introduced species such as cats and foxes, had placed their species close to extinction.

"It's basically a hunter, extremely active, and it's a beautiful little animal," principle research scientist leading the Western Shield, Department of Parks and Wildlife conservation program, Tony Friend, said.

"Their role in the environment is basically controlling invertebrates, but they have their own value, in the fact that they are a unique species."

Dibblers were once thought to be extinct until they were rediscovered in 1967 at Cheyne Beach, east of Albany.

"The Perth Zoo has been breeding dibblers since the late 1990s," Dr Friend said.

"Fitzgerald River National Park is the stronghold of the dibbler, and that breeding colony has been churning out young dibblers ever since.

"Their numbers are low, and the number of sites of which they occur are also small."

Dr Friend said introduced predators and habitat destruction have forced wild dibblers to take refuge away from mainland Australia.

"It's gone down to the point where there are only two populations off Jurien Bay, on very small Islands, and the Fitzgerald River National Park," he said.

The predator-free island will hopefully become home to a sustainable population of dibblers that can be drawn on for future conservation programs. ( Submitted: Emma Massenbauer )

Gunton Island is one of the 105 islands that make up the rugged and picturesque Recherche Archipelago or Bay of Isles.

The location had to meet both the logistical and environmental criteria of the conservation program.

"We looked at all the islands in the Recherche Archipelago, but one of our constraints was distance from the shore, because you need a bigger boat and more equipment," Dr Friend said.

"Then we had to consider the vegetation, and what else lives there.

"One problem animal that occurs on the south coast is the death adder."

Dr Friend said death adders had evolved to be experts at catching dibblers.

"They have that small tail that flicks around to look like a lizard, and that's exactly what a dibbler would go for," he said.

Monitoring progress

To monitor the new wild population, scientists were restricted to using small microchips and surveillance technology to keep an eye on the small marsupials.

"We put motion-activated cameras out on the island, and they have bait material based on peanut butter that the dibblers investigate, and when they do that they trigger the camera," Dr Friend said.

"They are all microchipped, so we can identify individuals.

"We know how old each one is, when it was released and even who its mother was."

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Dr Friend said the goal of the conservation program was to create a sustainable population from which to draw on in the future.

"One of our forward plans is to set a new population on the mainland," he said.

"We've already been successful at a site near Jerramungup.

"It is really about finding the right habitat and doing the right feral animal control.

"The plan with those island populations, is to harvest them and use those animals to set up populations either on other islands, or the mainland."

Passionate about his career as an environmental scientist, Dr Tony Friend said working to bring the endangered marsupials back from the brink, was his way of giving something back to his shared natural world.

"I think as a species, we've done an immense amount of damage on this planet, and I feel very privileged to do work on threatened mammals and marsupials, because they are so special for Australia," he said.

"This is part of a natural heritage, and if we let it go, then we have really failed."