Emily Bedggood
2010 is looking like an optimistic year for the Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby program. There have been no deaths found since November 2009. One of the un-collared animals has been found through scat analysis which tests for DNA. This makes us more confident that the other 2 un-collared animals are still there even though they haven’t been photographed for 6 months.
We have just finished helping an honours student from the University of Adelaide undertaking a study looking at individual animal’s home range structure and their movements after release. Jenny Proctor has been doing extensive radio tracking with the help from Conservation Volunteers Australia, Parks Victoria and the Department of Sustainability and Environment. She is due to finish her project and submit a thesis mid year which should show some interesting results.
At the moment breeding is our biggest hurdle. So far we have found no evidence of reproduction in the wild which is a bit disappointing but will hopefully occur this year. We need breeding otherwise we will not be able to have a self sustaining population. Our next trapping effort is in April and we hope to find some pouch young then.
Ed: There is a heap of information in The Shadow, the newsletter of the BTRW support Group, which Emily edits. To get a copy, Ph 53 622 111 or email: