Efforts to save world’s rarest marsupial are paying off

Gilbert's potoroo given a fighting chance with successful translocation

August 2010: Two tiny populations of the world's rarest marsupial - the Gilbert's potoroo - are thriving, with conservation efforts to save the critically endangered animal paying off.

THRIVING: A Gilbert's potoroo. Picture: Dick Walker / Gilbert's Potoroo Action Group

Gilbert's potoroos are small rat kangaroos, which bear some resemblance to bandicoots. They have a densely furred body, and long hind feet with long, curved claws on the front feet that they use to dig for food. Since the discovery of the only known wild population, which was about 40-strong, at Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve near Albany in 1995, the Gilbert's potoroo has been the subject of a recovery.

Translocation to predator-free island
Between 2005 and 2007, DEC translocated ten potoroos from the original colony at Two Peoples Bay to predator-free Bald Island, as insurance against the loss of the tiny mainland population.

Earlier this year, nine potoroos were released into a specially built 380ha enclosure in Waychinicup National Park, 25km east of Albany, with six of the animals coming from Bald Island and three from Two Peoples Bay.

Dr Tony Friend, the principal research scientist at Western Australia's Department of Environment and Conservation, said the latest monitoring trip to Bald Island had revealed a thriving population of potoroos.

‘During the two-week trip, we captured 49 adult or young independent potoroos, nine of which were original founder animals, which is a big increase over the previous record in November last year, when 29 independent potoroos were captured,' Dr Friend said. ‘The condition of the animals was good and 12 of the 19 females captured were carrying pouch young, while three others were suckling young out of the pouch.'

Breeding is an 'extremely positive sign'
Dr Friend said a survey in mid-May revealed eight of the nine animals introduced into the predator-proof fenced enclosure at Waychinicup National Park had survived. ‘Unfortunately, we lost one young male, which had been rescued at Two Peoples Bay and hand-reared after becoming separated from his mother, as he apparently had trouble finding food,' he said.

‘One of the recaptured Bald Island females at Waychinicup had a young animal in its pouch, which would have been conceived in the fenced enclosure, and this is an extremely positive sign that the animals are adapting well to their new environment.

‘Over the next few weeks we will be trapping extensively inside the enclosure to locate the potoroos and record the vegetation types they have settled in, to help us gain a better idea of the range of habitat types that Gilbert's potoroos can live in and help us select future release areas on the mainland.'