AssetID: 53841152
Headline: Endangered Wallabies Explore New Home
Caption: The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) has given an update on the 20 wallabies which they previously transferred from Taunton National Park in central Queensland to Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary in New South Wales. The 20 animals were Bridled Nailtail Wallabies, a species which was once believed to be extinct. The species was hunted to the brink of extinction by English invaders to Australia through to the 1900s, when it seemed to disappear. However, a fencing contractor reported a population on a Queensland property – sparking a new interest in conserving the species at Taunton. In 2019, researchers warned that the Bridled Nailtail Wallaby was still in danger. They estimated less than 500 mature individuals remained in the wild. During a new conservation effort, rangers from Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) and vets from Village Roadshow Theme Parks used cage traps to catch 20 wallabies from Taunton National Park and move them to another breeding site. AWC wildlife ecologist Rachel Ladd said of the move, “It was a massive effort, but the team secured the number of wallabies we set out to capture.” They lured twelve males and eight females into the lucerne-baited traps, cleared them for travel with a health check, and placed them inside pet carriers for their three-and-a-half-hour plane flight south. In their new home at Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary, NSW, the 20 endangered wallabies would join the second known population of their kind. The population at Scotia was established in 1998, two decades after the Taunton population. In 2002, the AWC acquired the property, expanded the fenced area from 4,000 hectares to 8,000 hectares, eradicated any feral predators, and began their own reintroduction program. They released 162 wallabies into the area by 2005, then another 267 in 2008. Ecologists estimated that the site included 1,774 wallabies in total by May 2024, despite the population decline suffered a few years earlier from the 2018 droughts. “Native animals such as the Bridled Nailtail Wallaby undergo natural cycles of boom and bust in response to prevailing conditions,” Dr. Ladd explained in her statement. “The recent drop in Bridled Nailtail Wallaby numbers at Scotia presented an opportunity for us to enhance the genetic diversity of the population without requiring a large number of new animals.” The newly released wallabies have made homes inside Scotia’s feral-predator-free area, wearing tracking collars which AWC ecologists will use to monitor their progress for the next year.
Keywords: photo, feature, photo feature, photo story, australia, wallabies, conservation, natural world
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