This chapter details the planning, logistics and execution of the eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) translocation to Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary (MFWS). The project aimed to restore ecosystem function by reintroducing this extinct mainland marsupial, known for its role as an ecosystem engineer. The translocation involved extensive inter-agency collaboration, ethical oversight and adaptive problem-solving. Key challenges included minimising stress-induced mortality, safeguarding pouch young and ensuring genetic diversity through strategic sourcing across Tasmania. Innovative trapping, sedation and transport protocols were developed, including custom crate designs and sedation trials using diazepam. A phased approach – pilot, trial and main translocation – allowed refinement of methods and risk mitigation. The project successfully relocated 89 individuals without adult mortality or pouch young loss. The chapter highlights the importance of interdisciplinary partnerships, adaptive management and rigorous planning in wildlife reintroductions, offering a model for future conservation translocations.

This chapter presents the reintroduction biology of the eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) at Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary (MFWS), detailing strategies, tactics, and outcomes across establishment, growth and regulation phases. Adaptive management guided translocation planning, health monitoring and post-release assessments. Immediate-release tactics proved more effective than delayed-release, with high survival and reproductive success. Physiological stress, body condition and genetic diversity were tracked, revealing improved health and stable population dynamics. The population reached density dependence within six years, indicating successful regulation. Genetic monitoring confirmed retention of source diversity and highlighted the need for long-term sampling. A trial reintroduction beyond predator-proof fencing tested coexistence with invasive predators, introducing the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ concept for adaptive predator exposure. The chapter proposes ‘coexistence conservation’ as a long-term strategy to restore native species in landscapes where eradication of invasive predators is unfeasible, emphasising evolutionary adaptation and multi-stage trials.

The successful reintroduction of eastern bettongs relies on suitable food being available, particularly truffles (underground fungal fruitbodies). Here, we compared stable isotopes (carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N)) and radiocarbon (∆14C) in hair and scat in bettongs subsequently reintroduced to Mulligan Flat Woodland Sanctuary (MFWS) against marsupial species of different diets to test whether such measurements are useful for dietary assessments. Patterns in bettong scat δ13C reflected seasonal shifts in the consumption of photosynthate derived from C3 plants (dicots and temperate grasses) versus C4 plants (tropical grasses), whereas a winter peak in scat δ15N reflected maximum reliance on truffle consumption. In hair, eastern bettongs resembled preferential fungivores in δ13C and δ15N and differed from carnivores, grazers, herbivores and opportunistic fungivores. Radiocarbon levels were higher in fungivorous potoroos than in wallaby grazers, suggesting similar measurements in eastern bettongs could assess fungal importance in their diet. These isotopic measurements will be useful for assessing the diets of reintroduced bettongs and other fungivorous marsupials in new environments.

After the French Revolution led eventually to a Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the feckless King Carlos IV, Queen María Luisa, and their son Fernando decamped for France in 1808. Without a functioning government, the Spanish people and a rag-tag army harassed the French but won few battles before England sent seasoned troops that finally ousted the French. Fernando VII returned amid revolutions in the Americas that shattered Spanish America into dozens of independent republics. The king also had to accept a constitution that limited his power. His daughter, Isabel II, never understood her role as a constitutional monarch, and a series of military coups and changes in government eventually led to her ouster and a brief republican government. A Bourbon restoration failed to help heal the fissures in Spanish political life, in which compromise was rare and various factions alternated in power through a cynical and corrupt system of managed elections. Amid increasing violence and unrest, Alfonso XIII accepted a military dictator to run the government. When he fell from favor, and the army disgraced itself during a war in Morocco, the king went into exile in 1931, allowing politicians on the left to declare a republic.

The varied topography and climate of Iberia posed challenges for prehistoric hominids, as well as for later traders, fishers, farmers, and herders attracted by the peninsula’s mineral wealth, arable land, and diversity of marine and land animals. Iberians arrived from North Africa, Celts later arrived from the north, and Phoenicians and Greeks arrived from the Mediterranean. All of these diverse peoples brought their culture and language to Spain – founding cities, farming the land, mining, herding, trading, and therefore connecting what the Greeks called Iberia to the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Northern Europe.

When municipal elections favored republican candidates in 1931, King Alfonso XIII went into exile, and politicians declared a republic, polarizing Spanish society further. Republican programs included ambitious social, economic, and cultural initiatives to improve lives, but the government was faction-ridden from the start. Increasing street violence and several revolts persuaded a cadre of army officers to launch a coup in April 1936 that became a civil war when the government refused to yield. The Spanish Civil War, marked by atrocities on both sides, pitted right-wing Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, against an increasingly left-wing Republic. It ended after hundreds of thousands of deaths with Franco in power, tens of thousands of Spaniards in exile, and Spain isolated during the Second World War, supposedly neutral but sending troops to fight Soviet Russia in support of Nazi Germany. The postwar period brought misery, widespread hunger, and continued isolation that was only eased during the anti-Soviet Cold War of the 1950s. The following decade brought an economic boom and the relaxation of certain aspects of the dictatorship. By the time of Franco’s death in 1975, Spaniards were poised to enter a new epoch but wary about what it might bring.

Under Muslim rule of what they called al-Andalus, the caliphate of Córdoba became one of the premier centers of the Islamic world. Islam tolerated other People of the Book, as they called Christians and Jews, but with restrictions. Over the eight centuries in which Muslim forces held sway in Iberia, the various cultures and languages of the peninsula developed and blended to a certain extent, which came to be called convivencia (lit., living together). Nonetheless, Christian forces began a reconquest of the land from the Muslims, beginning in the north and moving in stages toward the south. They benefited from the fragmentation of rule in the Muslim areas and the frequent disruptions caused by successive invasions from North Africa. As Christian forces captured territory, they formed various kingdoms in Portugal, Castile-León, and Aragón. Loyal supporters received grants of land from grateful monarchs and thus became a landed aristocracy. By the end of the thirteenth century, what would be known as the Christian Reconquest was virtually complete.

Castile and Aragón stayed amalgamated under the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, which reigned for two centuries. Early on, Spaniards conquered the Aztec and Inca empires in the Americas, and huge transatlantic merchant fleets connected Spain with its growing American Empire. After unprecedented silver deposits were discovered in both North and South America, Spanish silver and other treasure contributed to growth and inflation around the globe. The long-sought return route eastward from Asia to the Americas allowed transpacific trade to begin in 1565, while conquest of the Philippines made Spain’s composite monarchy, as it is often called, truly global. Spanish power declined in the late seventeenth century, the victim of overextension and continual warfare. When the Habsburgs died out in 1700, a Bourbon prince had the best dynastic claim to become king of Spain. As Felipe V, he fought most of Europe to remain on the throne and would father three successive kings, whose reigns saw Spain’s global empire reach its greatest extent. Thereafter, the French Revolution and a Napoleonic invasion would shatter Spain and end the early modern period.

The major dynasties and rulers in each period are listed along with their dates, from medieval times through the eighteenth century. For the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, monarchs, regents, dictators, and elected heads of government are listed along with their dates in power.

Roman armies entered Iberia at the end of the third century BCE and conquered the Carthaginians. Nonetheless, it required two centuries to bring what they called Hispania into the Roman orbit, due to the difficult terrain and the resistance of many local populations. Once established, the Romans brought considerable benefits to the inhabitants, including roads, bridges, aqueducts, the Latin language, law, and civic and cultural enhancements such as theaters, all of which left lasting traces into the present. They also converted to Christianity. As the Roman Empire faded in power, barbarians including the Visigoths invaded its borders. The Visigoths eventually arrived in Hispania and established their rule at the end of the sixth century, but they were overwhelmed by Muslim invaders from North Africa in the early seventh century. Nonetheless, although they left few traces of their own way of life, they preserved much of the Roman legacy.