'Extinct' plants and animals re-discovered in Victoria by excited scientists and even dogs

The latest find is a small plant called Bearded Flat Sedge which has been re-discovered by botanists scouring recently flooded river land in the Mallee.

The little plant, Cyperus squarrosus, had been listed as extinct in Victoria for more than 60 years - with its last verified sighting in 1953.

Just a few weeks ago, a population of Broad-toothed rats was unexpectedly discovered by Zoos Victoria's Wildlife Detection Dog Squad in the Coranderrk Bushland next to Healesville Sanctuary.

After two years training to sniff out the rat's scat, detection dog Moss found the grass-filled and bright green poo.

Human researchers conducted follow-up surveys in the grassy Coranderrk Bushland and found three of the fluffy and chubby-cheeked rodents which had never before been recorded in the area.

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Botanists from the government's Victorian Forest Monitoring Program yesterday announced they had discovered a "significant population" of Bearded Flat Sedge while inspecting plots of public land close to the Murray River during last year's floods.

This small, tufted plant only grows to a height of 16 centimetres and is suited to wet and muddy environments including disturbed soil in floodplains.

Before confirming the discovery, botanists sent samples of the rediscovered plant population to Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria to compare with the last verified specimen of the plant held in the State Botanical Collection.

Another tiny plant thought extinct, the wire-stem chickweed was re-discovered in the Mallee after flooding earlier in the year..

Victoria's plant collection is regarded as one of Australia's most valuable biological research repositories comprising more than 1.5 million dried plant, algae and fungi specimens.

Now verified, the latest find has been added to the collection,

The government is making arrangements for ongoing management of the plant to ensure its survival for the future.

The rare, native rodent found by Moss is largely nocturnal, notoriously shy, and difficult to detect on cameras, so had remained hidden from researchers during previous surveys of the area.

The discovery is significant because the population lives within a predator-free, fenced area, which will be important for the future conservation of the species.

In July last year, Zoos Victoria and Parks Victoria rediscovered Broad-toothed Rats at Wilson's Promontory for the first time in more than three decades.

Broad-toothed Rats have been declining due to predation by cats and foxes, habitat destruction, fragmentation, bushfires and climate change.

In Victoria, the species has been lost from more than 50 per cent of the areas in which they were previously found before 1990, and populations were significantly affected by the recent fires.