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A grey and cream Warru joey, is nestled beneath multiple, colourful blankets.

Warru (black-flanked rock-wallaby) recovery project

  • Context: Regional

The Alinytjara Wilurara Landscape Board (AWLB) has proudly supported the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands’ Warru Recovery Project since 2007. AWLB received funding from the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) for this project until 2023.

Listed as endangered, the black-flanked rock-wallaby (warru) population in the APY Lands had dropped to the brink of extinction.

The plight of the warru, as a culturally important species, was brought to the fore by a group of senior Anangu women who were, and remain, a strong force behind the drive to revive warru numbers and have them reinstated at locations they previously inhabited. Since then, two Warru Ranger teams have been established and with ongoing training are supporting the Warru Recovery Project.

Over the past 19 years, with the support of AWLB and other key partners including Zoos SA, significant progress has been made in increasing warru numbers and reestablishing locally extinct populations and supplementing smaller isolated populations at various locations across the APY Lands. Working as partners monitoring the size and health of populations, managing threats and support learning and development of the Warru Ranger teams is critical to the ongoing recovery of this species. 

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Project funded by

Funded by the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust.

Key outcomes:

  • AW’s support includes funding, field staff (including an ecologist), training for Anangu rangers, mapping, and data management services
  • Protecting priority listed threatened species in remote area, using Traditional Ecological Knowledge
  • Indigenous-led project involving many dozens of Anangu rangers over almost two decades
  • More than 50 Traditional Owners involved in planning and consultation in 2020-21 alone
  • Trajectory of the threatened species has notably improved, however, ongoing support is still required for the foreseeable future
  • In 2022 Indigenous Warru Rangers completed their first independent warru population survey, demonstrating the growing capacity of Indigenous ranger teams.
  • Hand-raised warru initially released into a predator free fenced area known as the Pintji
  • Ranger teams are now looking to expand the Pintji to increase the diversity of threatened or lost species back to the APY Lands – bringing species richness back
  • Multiple translocations: warru taken from Pintji populations then reintroduced to former habitats, with 299 animals released into the wild since 2017
  • Monitoring shows newly reestablished population is persisting and breeding 
  • It is essential to ensure buffel grass is effectively controlled in key warru habitat
  • Ongoing monitoring and threat management needed to support wild populations

Read more here.

Two people are releasing a fluffy, grey marsupial, on some large red rocks, they are surrounded by bush landscape.
Alinytjara Wilurara LB, Warru Rangers, SA.
A person is standing on red rocks, and is releasing a small Warru joey, which is hopping away.
Alinytjara Wilurara LB, Warru Ranger Releases, SA
A grey and brown Warru, is hopping on some red rocks, high up.
Alinytjara Wilurara LB, Warru on the move, SA.
A group of people are sitting on red rocks, high above the ground, one person has an animal wrapped in a blanket.
Alinytjara Wilurara LB, Ecologist Brett, backhouse working with Warry rangers, SA.
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