GILBERT'S POTOROO - AUSTRALIA'S MOST ENDANGERED MAMMAL
Welcome to the Website of Gilbert's Potoroo Action Group
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Gilbert's Potoroo is a small marsupial teetering on the brink of extinction. Found
only in dense scrub on a rugged, windswept headland thrusting out into the Southern Ocean, its numbers are
so low that a chance event like a bushfire or a drought could push the species into extinction.
With an estimated
population, in the wild, of only 30 to 40 animals, critically endangered Gilbert's Potoroo is Australia's rarest
mammal.
First discovered in 1840 by naturalist John Gilbert and recorded again only a few times over the next 40 years, this small rat-kangaroo was thought to be extinct since the late 1870s until rediscovered in 1994 at Two Peoples Bay near Albany, on the South Coast of Western Australia.
Gilbert's Potoroo Action Group is a not-for-profit community group, hoping to help save Gilbert's Potoroo from extinction. On our website you can find out about the history, ecology and conservation of Gilbert's Potoroo together with information about our group and links to other sites of interest. We hope that you find our site informative and that you might be inspired to help us to help Gilbert's Potoroo.
The information on this website relating to Gilbert's Potoroo has been reviewed by Dr Tony Friend, CALM's Principal Research Scientist in charge of the Gilbert's Potoroo Recovery Program. Tony is also a member of Gilbert's Potoroo Action Group.
We intend to regularly update the site with news relating to the conservation of Gilbert's Potoroo and the activities of our group, so bookmark our site and keep track of what's happening!
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*** LATEST NEWS *** |
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| Coming soon - More of the latest news about Gilbert's Potoroo and our group's activities. | |
| Date posted | Topic |
|---|---|
| 14 Apr 2004 | CALM thanks Gilbert's Potoroo Action Group Details |
| 14 Apr 2004 | GPAG Donates $2000 to buy radio transmitters. Details |
| 14 Apr 2004 | Blue Mountains Grammar School Fundraiser. Details |
| 12 Mar 2004 | GPAG website is now online. Details |
| 14 Apr 2004 | CALM thanks Gilbert's Potoroo Action Group On 5 April the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) put out a press release thanking the efforts of the Gilbert's Potoroo Action Group in helping conserve Australia's most endangered marsupial. CALM Executive Director Keiran McNamara said the Gibert's Potoroo Action Group played an important role in assisting CALM in research and recovery actions for the species, which was only found at Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, 35 kilometres east of Albany on the State's south coast. Full press release online here. |
| 14 Apr 2004 | GPAG Donates $2000 to buy radio transmitters. Because Gilbert's Potoroos are nocturnal, timid and live in dense undergrowth, observing them in the wild is extremely difficult. To obtain more information about the activity and habits of the potoroos, radio tracking is used to monitor their movements and GPAG learned that new radio transmitters were urgently needed to continue this work. On 22 January, GPAG made a donation of $2000 to CALM, to cover the purchase of eight new tail transmitters. The donation from the Blue Mountains Grammar School (see story below) made up a substantial portion of this donation). In February CALM scientists, assisted by 23 volunteers (including a number of GPAG members), carried out a two week radio tracking expedition, following the activities of a group of six Gilbert's Potoroos on the northern slopes of Mt. Gardner. Working from four radio tracking stations positioned around the colony, with a volunteer manning each station for a 6 hour shift, the potoroos were tracked through the night, from 3pm to 9am each day. By day, back at the research centre, the volunteers would enter the previous night's data into the computer. CALM scientists are now analysing this data, which will give valuable information about the potoroos' behaviour. |
| 14 Apr 2004 | Blue Mountains Grammar School Fundraiser. Last year Joey Clarke, then a year 9 student at Blue Mountains Grammar School in NSW, decided that he wanted to help Gilbert's Potoroo so, as a fundraiser, he organised 30 of his school mates to walk and run 45km in 10 hours. The fundraiser was a great success and raised $1741.68!, which was then donated to Gilbert's Potoroo Action Group. The funds were later put to very good use when GPAG donated funds for CALM to buy new radio transmitters to track the activities of Gilbert's Potoroos in the wild (see story above). Teacher Steve Wilkes sent us this photo of some of the walkers (Joey is 2nd from the right). GPAG would like to thank Joey and his fellow walkers for this outstanding effort. |
| 12 Mar 2004 | GPAG website is now online. Well, it's taken a little longer than we anticipated but our website is finally online. To all who have previously checked our web address to only find our pageholder - thanks for your patience. We still have a few areas under construction, so please bear with us as we finish these off. We have tried to make our site a comprehensive resource for anyone with an interest in Australia's Rarest Mammal so please bookmark the site and re-visit at your leisure. |
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