Yahoo – AFP,
Glenda Kwek, 16 March 2015
 |
An albino
wallaroo with a normal coloured joey and adult daughter sit between the
trunks
of eucalyptus gum trees in the Mount Panorama Woodlands near Bathurst
in New
South Wales (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)
|
Bathurst
(Australia) (AFP) - "There she is, there she is!" In the distance
beyond the outstretched finger of conservation biologist Daniel Ramp stood a
rare white animal, rising slowly as her ears stiffened and eyes focused on him.
Nestled
below her snowy chest was a brown joey, its head peaking out of a pouch.
The
1.5-metre (4.9-feet) tall albino wallaroo bounded towards the thin trunks of
eucalyptus gum trees in the Mount Panorama Woodlands, her light leaps barely
breaking the silence of the natural reserve.
 |
Conservation
biologist Daniel Ramp heads
up the Bathurst Kangaroo Project, which is
trying
to protect the rare albino wallaroo
living near a major grand prix circuit
(AFP
Photo/Peter Parks)
|
The white
marsupial, believed to be more than four years old and one of only three
spotted in the area, has thrilled researchers studying the local kangaroo
population -- but there are concerns about the wallaroos' chosen home in the
woodlands surrounding the race circuit.
The
Bathurst Kangaroo Project, funded by the University of Technology Sydney's
Centre for Compassionate Conservation and Bathurst's local council, is keen to
reduce the conflict between the animals and race cars.
Mount
Panorama is home to the "Bathurst 1000", known as the "Great
Race", which takes place in October.
The culling
of some 140 kangaroos near the tracks sparked outrage in 2009, while videos of
them bounding between cars travelling at almost 200 kilometres (125 miles) per
hour have gone viral on YouTube.
Organisers
have sought to keep them away by erecting fences but some still get on the
track, causing near-misses or crashes.
"We
see kangaroos jumping into fences left, right and centre, getting scared,"
Ramp said, describing how some kangaroos react when stressed by the race and
the appearance of thousands of fans.
Unique
population
Kangaroos
feature on Australia's coat of arms alongside the native emu and are a mix of
red, brown and grey colours, with tens of millions across Australia and more
than 50 different species.
Wallaroos
are slightly smaller, and typically have grey fur.
There have
only been a handful of mentions of albino kangaroos in scientific literature
and in the media, although zoos have bred them in the past as attractions, said
Ramp from UTS.
"This
population is unique and we can show very clearly the effects of that albinism,"
Ramp, who heads up the Bathurst Kangaroo Project, told AFP.
 |
Albino
wallaroos are rare in the wild, while zoos have in the past bred
them as
attractions (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)
|
"The
albinism is a tip of the iceberg. That's one very visual form of the recessive
inbreeding that is occurring... reflective of an inbred population that is
closed and has nowhere to go."
The
researchers believe the three white wallaroos -- two adult females and a joey
-- in the area may be descendents from a male albino brought to Bathurst by
Australian philanthropist Sir Edward Hallstrom four decades ago.
Hallstrom
-- who was a trustee of Sydney's Taronga Zoo -- donated the wallaroo to a local
nature park, although it is not known where he got it from, the park's manager
for some 25 years Ian McArtney said.
"The
time that I was there, he was the main breeding male, but at no time... did he
produce any albino offspring," he added.
But years
later, the researchers say recessive genes carried by subsequent generations
may have led to the striking creatures' re-emergence.
McArtney
said he also saw albinism in smaller-sized red-neck wallabies, but none of them
survived for more than a few months as they were preyed on by feral cats and
foxes.
Roo-race
tensions
Potential
solutions to the conflict between the race and wallaroos include moving those
trapped in woodlands within the circuit to another area, or changing the
fences, kangaroo scientist Ray Mjadwesch said.
As part of
the project, Mjadwesch dons a camouflage suit and shoots the roos with
tranquilliser darts, tagging them to monitor their movements.
 |
Mount
Panorama has been dubbed Australia's spiritual home of motor sport and
is home
to the 'Bathurst 1000', known as the 'Great Race' (AFP Photo/Greg Wood)
|
Listening
posts pick up the frequencies emitted by tags every 30 seconds, with the
figures painting a picture of where they roam on race days and for the rest of
the year.
Twenty
kangaroos have been tagged since the project started in May, and Ramp hopes to
eventually keep tabs on 10 percent of the population, estimated to be up to
600.
Motion-sensor
camera traps document the animals' behaviour, and there are plans to make the
data publicly available to get the local community involved.
Ramp and
his team are also collecting roo hair samples with the goal of testing their
stress levels, after a recent study of wolves in Canada was able to do that
using the animals' fur.
The
researchers plan to count all the resident kangaroos, including the number of
males, females and joeys, to identity the different family groups and how they
interact.
Ultimately,
they hope to document the pace at which the population is growing and expand
their data-collection to other regions, amid conflicting evidence on whether
the native creature is in historical decline or at plague proportions.
Four
species -- swamp wallabies, red-necked wallabies, wallaroos and eastern grey
kangaroos -- have so far been observed at Mount Panorama.
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