Rare Aussie animals placed in backpacks and flown 570km to secure location

Australia has the worst record in the world for mammalian extinction. So in a bid to stop history repeating, six rare wallabies have been taken from their rocky stronghold and flown 570km across the country to help bolster an important insurance population.

Fewer than 100 southern brush-tailed rock-wallabies remain in the wild, primarily due to habitat destruction and predation by invasive European foxes. But there are an additional 300 to 400 living at the Mount Rothwell sanctuary, west of Melbourne, which is run by environmental charity the Odonata Foundation.

Its chief operating officer Matt Singleton explained the wallabies are a curious creature that scales high rocky cliffs, watching people as they walk past. “They stand up there almost like meerkats. When you sit still and watch them... they mind their own business, but they’re always keeping a watchful eye over you,” he said.

Brush-tailed rock-wallabies are well known for their ability to help the landscape by nibbling between long tussock grasses, potentially improving the landscape for dragons, which require open spaces. They also spread mycorrhizal fungi, which attach to tree roots to help them communicate.