2008 ARAZPA Conservation Award

Zoos South Australia has had a long association with the yellow-footed rock wallaby. The species has been maintained in the collections at Adelaide Zoo and Monarto Zoo since 1890 and 1988 respectively. Moreover, it is the animal featured on the Adelaide Zoo logo.

In September 1996, ten yellow-footed rock wallabies P. x. xanthopus were released at Aroona Sanctuary, near Leigh Creek in the northern Flinders Ranges. The following year, a further two animals were introduced into this founder population.

Ten years on, this rock wallaby population has expanded to approximately 40 animals, and has been claimed to be the most successful mainland macropod reintroduction in Australia. The success of this rock-wallaby reintroduction has paved the way for the development of an Aroona Sanctuary Management Plan (ASMP), ensuring that the Sanctuary is best managed for all species into the future.

In 1995, prior to the reintroduction of the yellow-footed rock wallaby, feral animal control was implemented at Aroona Sanctuary. Since this time, Zoos SA has maintained a continual presence, conducting quarterly feral animal control trips to the region.Local pastoralists also assist in feral animal control, and the combined forces have seen the establishment of a 20km buffer zone around the Sanctuary where feral animals are kept at minimum numbers.

The reduction of feral animals, largely cats, rabbits, foxes and goats, greatly contributes to the preservation of the habitat. Furthermore, project partners in the ASMP, Conservation Volunteers Australia are instrumental in weed control and revegetation at the Sanctuary.

The yellow-footed rock wallaby is currently classified as ‘Vulnerable’ by the IUCN, with numbers having declined due to habitat alteration for farming, competition for food with rabbits and goats, indiscriminate shooting for pelts (until the 1920s), and predation by foxes and feral cats.

Along with other yellow-footed rock wallaby populations in the Flinders Ranges, the Aroona population was on the decline, and eventually disappeared from Aroona in 1983. The population has successfully re-established itself, and is now included in rock-wallaby research throughout the Flinders and Gammon Ranges.