Pouch potatoes thrive on a little freedom
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/pouch-potat [2008-7-4]
Tag : little peanut
IN THE dead of night, the bush track barely registers in the dimcircle of light from a headlamp. Members of the research team feelfor toeholds to get themselves over another huge rock, inelegantlyslide in the loose dirt on the other side then grab handfuls ofstinging nettles to avoid plunging down the hillside.
This crew from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and TarongaZoo is on a mission to help a small colony of brush-tailed rockwallabies, once abundant near Jenolan Caves but now listed asendangered in NSW.
On a clear, cold night last week the two teams climbed the steeplimestone cliffs that the nocturnal wallabies call home to check 20traps, laid earlier in the day. Captured animals, attracted to thewire cages by bowls of peanut butter and oats, waited quietly fortheir rescuers, submitting passively to being weighed and measured,having their pouches checked for young and given a general healthassessment before being released. For 16 years, this colony had been locked behind a predator-prooffence. But last November, after extensive fox and wild cat cullingin the area, the fence was opened to allow the captive animals ataste of freedom.
Deb Ashworth, manager of Biodiversity Conservation with the NSWDepartment of the Environment and Climate Change, said thepopulation had no long-term future in its enclosure. "We wantthis colony to survive as a functioning, natural colony rather thanas this sort of colony that's kept within a fence." The Jenolan Caves colony has a chequered history. Years ago, thewallabies roamed all over and were an attraction for visitors. Butnumbers gradually declined, and in 1964 a predator-proof fence waserected and 35 wallabies caught and placed inside to breed. Theprogram was too successful, with more than 80 animals crowdedinside by the late 1980s.
IN THE dead of night, the bush track barely registers in the dimcircle of light from a headlamp. Members of the research team feelfor toeholds to get themselves over another huge rock, inelegantlyslide in the loose dirt on the other side then grab handfuls ofstinging nettles to avoid plunging down the hillside.
This crew from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and TarongaZoo is on a mission to help a small colony of brush-tailed rockwallabies, once abundant near Jenolan Caves but now listed asendangered in NSW.
On a clear, cold night last week the two teams climbed the steeplimestone cliffs that the nocturnal wallabies call home to check 20traps, laid earlier in the day. Captured animals, attracted to thewire cages by bowls of peanut butter and oats, waited quietly fortheir rescuers, submitting passively to being weighed and measured,having their pouches checked for young and given a general healthassessment before being released. For 16 years, this colony had been locked behind a predator-prooffence. But last November, after extensive fox and wild cat cullingin the area, the fence was opened to allow the captive animals ataste of freedom.
Deb Ashworth, manager of Biodiversity Conservation with the NSWDepartment of the Environment and Climate Change, said thepopulation had no long-term future in its enclosure. "We wantthis colony to survive as a functioning, natural colony rather thanas this sort of colony that's kept within a fence." The Jenolan Caves colony has a chequered history. Years ago, thewallabies roamed all over and were an attraction for visitors. Butnumbers gradually declined, and in 1964 a predator-proof fence waserected and 35 wallabies caught and placed inside to breed. Theprogram was too successful, with more than 80 animals crowdedinside by the late 1980s.
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