Kangaroo Valley Voice - Lazyfish Technology

July 2008 Kangaroo Valley Voice Page 29FRIENDS OF THE BRUSH-TAILED ROCK-WALLABYINCORPORATEDPresident’s Report….Dear Friends,Since the the last Newsletter, theFriends have:Held two Executive Committeemeetings.ABN 71 795 420 274PO BOX 6182 KANGAROO VALLEY NSW 2577Continued to keep up to date andparticipate in the NSW captivebreeding programme.Finalised a Business Plan for thegroup.Positioned donation boxes andmembership forms at severallocations in the KangarooValley.Participated in a WIRES Fundraiserin Bowral, NSW, and donatedthe Friends' video "BouncingBack" to the event.The Friends' BTRW costumewas also worn on the night.Kept in contact with WaterfallSprings Conservation Park onthe progress of "Warugul", thewww.rockwallaby.org.aubtrw@fastrac.net.auNPWS News….Three Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies havenow had a little over 6 months to settleinto one of our colonies in theShoalhaven.This colony had only a single femaleremaining at it – Roxy.Two males (Adam and Hunter) and afemale (Rosie) from a colony in theHunter Valley were released into thecolony in November 2007 to give Roxy achance to breed and rescue the colonyfrom its threat of immediate extinction.The animals were released with radiocollars fitted so that they could beregularly tracked to see whether theysettled into the colony or moved offpost release.Over the first 4 months all the BTRWsettled in well and were regularly seenon a number of remote cameras set uparound the colony.The older of the two males (Adam)began to turn up in all the photos thatRoxy was in and both males werephotographed showing interest in thetwo females.While to date there have been nophotos of pouch young with their headsNewsletter – July 2008young male from one of ourlocal BTRW colonies who wasincluded in the captivebreeding programme at WSC.Warugul is now breeding and thetwo females from the WataganMountains both have pouchedyoung. Maybe the KangarooValley and Watagan Mountainsgenetics together will producesome robust offspring! Let'shope so.Kept in touch with the happeningsand progress at theShoalhaven colony where, lastNovember, three BTRW's weretranslocated from the wild tothis colony to endeavour toprevent the colony frombecoming extinct.Participated in ongoing andintensive fox control. As aresult of all the rain over thelast 18 months, fox numbershave increased and foxes areon the move. It is importantthat the Community continuesout of the pouches, we have had a fewphotos of the females with potentialsmall pouch bulges but nothing yetconfirmed.Fingers crossed.Unfortunately over the past fewmonths, despite extensive efforts, wehave been unable to pick up a signalfrom Hunter’s collar at or beyond thecolony.We are unsure whether this is due to afaulty collar, whether he has movedout of the colony (being the nondominantmale) or whether he is nolonger alive.Prior to his disappearance he hasmoved right down one end of thecolony away from where our remotecameras were positioned. Despitemoving a camera down his end of thecolony following his signal loss, he hasnot been seen on any of the remotecameras since.We are now trying to get an aircraft tofly over the general area and radiotrack from above in case we can pickhim up further a field from the air.Fox baiting is continuing in KangarooValley, Illaroo and Bugong areas toto support fox baiting, as foxcontrol is an integral part ofthe BTRW recoveryprogramme. The Friendsappreciate this support, whichcontributes significantly to thesuccess of the programme.Had a meeting with ShoalhavenCouncil representatives on thenext stage ofthe Bushcare Plan on BTRWhabitat. The Friends arewaiting to hear from Councilon what has been proposed.The Friends' AGM will be held inSeptember with the date to beadvised.Please come along, and also considernominating for the Committee.The Friends encourage you all tomaintain your memberships, andencourage others to join.Many thanks for your support,Susan Robertson,President.help protect all the colonies from foxpredation.We are now baiting one week a monthin Kangaroo Valley and for 2consecutive weeks every secondmonth in the Illaroo area.Other news on the BTRW front is thatthe biannual fox shoot program inKangaroo Valley and Illaroo has juststarted up again.A number of private properties inthese areas have given consent toallow a contractor to conduct foxshooting and trapping to take place forthe protection of local BTRW.The wet weather has stalled theprogram which is now expected to becompleted in early July.At a small BTRW colony nearGoulburn a goat shoot has resulted in18 goats removed from the area.The area is also fox baited regularlythroughout the year.It is hoped that the goat shoot willfurther reduce pressures on the colonyas goats are known to compete withBTRW for rocky habitat.