SIMON Corbell has launched a new action plan to help the endangered brush-tailed rock-wallaby (Petrogale penicillata) recover from near extinction.

The action plan will protect the local wallaby species by outlining strategies for their identification, protection, survival and re-introduction.

“We learned so much from the first action plan for the brush-tailed rock-wallaby that we needed to update the information and develop new strategies for its continued protection with this new plan,” Simon said.

“While the wallaby is thought to be extinct in the wild in the ACT, there is a captive breeding colony at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve that successfully breeds animals for reintroduction in Victoria and NSW. Through this colony the ACT Government has conducted physiological, behavioural and reproductive research, learning much about the wallaby’s ecology and management and has gained a better understanding of its conservation needs.

“This new action plan, which will guide further recovery actions, includes continuing the captive breeding program, thereby playing a pivotal role in the wallaby’s conservation.”

“Once common and widespread in mountainous south-eastern Australia, they are now only locally common in the north-eastern part of NSW. The last recorded sighting in the ACT was at Tidbinbilla in 1959.

“Large-scale hunting of the brush-tailed rock-wallaby for the commercial fur trade until 1927 reduced numbers so significantly that remaining colonies were vulnerable to other threatening processes such as foxes, hydatid disease and bushfire.

“We hope the ACT will eventually reintroduce the species into suitable habitat in the ACT in the longer term, but a significant research effort is required before that can be justified.”

The action plan has been prepared under the Nature Conservation Act 1980 and has been endorsed by the ACT Flora and Fauna Committee. For further information visit environment.act.gov.au

[Photo: “Petrogale penicillata with radio tracking collar – journal.pone.0063017.g001A” by Power ML, Emery S, Gillings MR (2013) – Power ML, Emery S, Gillings MR (2013) Into the Wild: Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Determinants via a Species Recovery Program. PLoS ONE 8(5): e63017. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063017. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Petrogale_penicillata_with_radio_tracking_collar_-_journal.pone.0063017.g001A.png#mediaviewer/File:Petrogale_penicillata_with_radio_tracking_collar_-_journal.pone.0063017.g001A.png ]