October was a busy month for those involved with Brush-tailed Rock wallabies. Camera work has proven useful in monitoring our first wild born pouch young Shadow’s progress. Photos showed him hopping in and out of his mother’s pouch and exploring while his mother feeds.
Only half of the population was trapped in our Autumn trapping trip so that there was no risk of trapping Shadow. Three females and a male were trapped. They were all healthy and a little male pouch young was found in animal 118’s pouch. He was about a month old at the time and a very good sign that the population is settling into their new home.
On the 20th of October five more wallabies were released into the colony. Two males and three females joined the 13 animals already at the Moora Moora creek site. The animals were fitted with GPS collar with a VHF component. This has meant much less radio tracking. Mortality and location signals are checked regularly and it is hoped the GPS component will give us accurate data about their movements and social interactions. A PhD student who started this year will be collecting the data as part of her studies.
Hopefully early next year we will trap the other half of the animals which have not been trapped since April this year. Fingers crossed for more pouch young.
_EDITOR’S NOTE: Because of the VHF equipped collars, monitoring from the air was possible post our big storm and all animals seem to be alive and well._