Yellow-footed
Rock-wallaby Petrogale xanthopus
 |
Yellow-footed
Rock-wallaby Petrogale xanthopus |
The endangered yellow-footed
Rock-wallaby is the most strikingly coloured member of the kangaroo family.
The main reasons yellow-footed rock-wallabies have all but disappeared
in NSW are fox attacks on young wallabies and feral goats encroaching
on wallaby habitat.
In NSW the Yellow-footed
Rock Wallaby was first recorded in 1964 near Mutawintji, in the Coturaundee
Ranges. The two small mountain ranges in the far west of the state are
still the only known places where the species survives.
The habitat of the
surviving population was on private land, granting no protection for the
colony.
In 1979, the Foundation
for National Parks & Wildlife purchased 10,000 hectares of this land,
now part of Mutawintji National Park, for the conservation and protection
of the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby. Further funds were allocated to pest
eradication targeting foxes and goats.
Annual surveys of
Mutawintji National Park confirm that the population is now recovering,
having grown every year since 1995. There are now between 300 and 400
Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies.
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