Southern Ark Operations manager, Andy Murray said, "We've had cameras out in the bush at 249 sites since April to check on the wildlife and their survival after the fires.

"We're particularly interested in how the long-footed potoroos have fared - they're an endangered species confined to forested country in East Gippsland and North-East Victoria and we weren't sure about their ability to survive widespread and intense bushfires," Mr Murray said.

"The fantastic news is that the camera-trapping survey carried out from April to August revealed that we still had long-footed potoroos at 140 of the 249 sites, which is around 57 per cent of the sites surveyed. When we surveyed in 2016/2017, the potoroos were detected at 64 per cent of these sites, so fortunately there hasn't been a catastrophic decline following the fires.

"They were also detected right across their known distribution in far East Gippsland, which should make it easier for the species to re-populate the forest as it recovers, and the potoroo numbers increase.

"The cameras also recorded the presence of a range of other mammal and bird species: mountain and common brushtail possums were surprisingly common, detected at 82 per cent of sites post-fire.

"Superb Lyrebirds were detected at 42 per cent of the sites, common wombats and swamp wallabies were seen by around 47 per cent of the cameras. Long-nosed bandicoots, bush rats, antechinus and ringtail possums also popped up from time to time.

"This news is both a relief and a reward for the extensive fox control program that preceded the fires. The fox baiting component of the Southern Ark project has been significantly re-established, with around 95 per cent of the network now re-baited. Work continues to re-establish the rest of the network as more tracks are opened up."