Sweet moment endangered woylies released in groundbreaking wildlife restoration project

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) has begun the next stage of their groundbreaking Mammal Restoration Project releasing over 100 endangered Woylies (Brush-tailed Bettongs) outside a feral predator-free fenced area in Western Australia.

Woylies have been absent from the Wheatbelt region for over 100 years, until 2015, when AWC began reintroducing 162 individuals from three source sites into a 7,830-hectare fenced area at Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary on Badimia Country.

The fenced area was cleared of predators like foxes and cats, the primary driver of native mammal extinctions and ongoing declines in Australia, giving the Woylies a safe space to comfortably grow their population.

A decade later, with an estimated population of over 1,000 individuals, AWC captured and released a small cohort from inside to outside the safe haven.

This will allow them to begin establishing a self-sustaining population ‘beyond the fence’, taking the restoration project into the whole landscape scale.

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