Endangered tammar wallabies returned to northern jarrah forest

10/11/94

Endangered tammar wallabies were returned to the northern jarrah forest today for the first time in more than 10 years.

The Department of Conservation and Land Management will release between 20 and 30 tammars at Batalling Forest, east of Collie.

Environment Minister Kevin Minson said the release had been made possible by intensive fox control in the area.

Tammars disappeared from the northern jarrah forest in the last 10 to 15 years and were now found only at Perup forest, east of Manjimup, a few offshore islands and some nature reserves in the Wheatbelt.

Mr Minson said the tammars would be captured from Perup forest and tagged and weighed before being released at Batalling.

"A number of them will be radio collared so CALM officers can determine where they go and how they use the forest," he said.

"Tammars inhabit melaleuca and heartleaf poison thicket at Perup and Garden Island and there are several suitable areas of thicket at Batalling forest."

Mr Minson said the tammar wallaby was the second species to be reintroduced to Batalling since intensive fox baiting began there more than three years ago.

"Numbats were released in the area in 1992 and 1993 and monitoring has shown they are thriving," he said.

"The reintroduction of tammars to Batalling illustrates the enormous success of CALM's Operation Foxglove program, in which almost half a million hectares are being baited across the State's jarrah forest.

"Large scale fox control means that in future we may once again see tammars and other native species in many more areas of our forest."

The release of the tammars will bring the number of endangered species at Batalling to five, along with the numbat, woylie, southern brown bandicoot and chuditch.

Media contact:  Caroline Lacy  222 9595 or Carolyn Thomson, CALM 389 8644