BREAKTHROUGH
in saving endagered wallaby

A captive breeding program developed by Monash researchers is helping save the critically endangered Victorian brush-tailed rock wallaby.

This is the first time such a program has been used to rescue an endangered marsupial species. Trials just completed using a technique known as cross-fostering have resulted in the acceleration of the species' reproductive rate from one to more than six offspring annually.

Over the past two years, the team of researchers -- headed by Dr David Taggart from Monash's Department of Anatomy -- has rescued several of the near-extinct wallabies, including two males, from the handful of remaining colonies around Victoria to form the nucleus of the captive breeding group at Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria.

The team has been using the cross-
fostering technique as a way to rapidly boost the number of rock wallabies born in captivity, with the longer-term aim of reintroducing them back into the wild. The method involves using surrogate tammar wallabies to rear new-born brush-tailed rock wallabies in their pouches, enabling the females to cycle again and produce further young.

Victory for wallabies

Dr Taggart said the program was a victory for the Victorian brush-tailed rock wallaby after 200 years of decline, and the technique would have major implications for the management and conservation of other marsupial species.

With fewer than 40 Victorian brush-tailed rock wallabies remaining at only a few sites in East Gippsland's Snowy River region and in remote parts of the Grampians, the species is considered critically endangered.

Dr Taggart said the genetically unique species, which had once numbered several hundred thousand, was now so rare that it had been nicknamed 'The Shadow'.

"Urgent action was needed to save the rock wallaby," Dr Taggart said. "For the first time in many years, we can say that the future of the brush-tailed rock wallaby is looking brighter."

According to Mr Geoff Underwood, from Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in the ACT where the fostered young are being monitored, the brush-tailed rock wallaby was once found within the region but was now presumed to be extinct within the ACT.

"If the program continues to be successful, it may not be long before we see the return of this magnificent animal to the area," he said.

The program is being overseen by the Victorian Brush-tailed Wallaby Recovery Team, and is a joint project with Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, the Monash University's Department of Anatomy, the Victorian Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Cooperative Research Centre for the Conservation and Management of Marsupials, the Conservation and Research Unit, Melbourne Zoo, Adelaide Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary.