Half a century of survey data reveal population recovery but persistent threats for the Vulnerable yellow-footed rock-wallaby in Queensland, Australia J ENNI FER L ES LE Y S ILC O CK * 1 , 2 ,I AN C. GYN THER 3 , 4 ,ALAN HORS U P 5
J EN NY MOLYN E U X 3,TRACY L. WATTZ 6,RUSSELL J. F AIRF AX 7,AL J. HEALY 1 DAV I D MURPHY8 , 9 and P ETE R D. MCRAE 6
Abstract The record of mammal declines and extinctions in Australia raises concerns regarding geographically restricted and poorly known taxa. Formany taxa, the existing data are insufficient to assess their conservation status and inform appropriate management. Concerns regarding the per- sistence of the subspecies of yellow-footed rock-wallaby Petrogale xanthopus celeris, which is endemic to Queens- land, have been expressed since the 1970s because of red fox Vulpes vulpes predation, competition with feral goats Capra hircus and land clearing. This rock-wallaby is rarely observed, occupies rugged mountain ranges and, prior to our surveys, had not been surveyed for 25 years. We sur- veyed 138 sites across the range of this rock-wallaby during 2010–2023, including revisiting sites surveyed in the 1970s–1980s and locations of historical records. We exam- ined occurrence in relation to habitat variables and threats. Occupancy and abundance remained similar over time at most sites. However, by 2023 the subspecies had recolonized areas in the north-east of its range where it had disappeared between surveys in the 1980s and 2010s, and three south- western subpopulations that were considered extinct in the 1980s were rediscovered. Recolonization and increases in abundance at numerous sites between the 2010s and 2020s are associated with declines in feral goat abundance, indicating dietary and habitat competition are major threats. Exclusion fences erected since 2010 could limit genetic exchange between rock-wallaby subpopulations whilst allowing domestic goats to be commercially grazed. Petrogale xanthopus celeris should remain categorized as
*Corresponding author,
j.silcock@
uq.edu.au 1School of the Environment, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia 2Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment, Science and Innovation,
Queensland Government, Toowong, Australia 3Threatened Species Operations, Department of Environment, Science and
Innovation, Queensland Government, Moggill, Australia 4Biodiversity and Geosciences Program, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane,
Australia 5Threatened Species Operations, Department of Environment, Science and
Innovation, Queensland Government, Red Hill, Australia 6Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, Queensland Government,
Charleville, Australia 7Independent researcher, Charleville, Australia 8Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, Queensland Government,
Brisbane, Australia 9Environment Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Received 21 September 2023. Revision requested 19 January 2024. Accepted 17 April 2024. First published online 19 November 2024.
Vulnerable based on these ongoing threats. Repeated moni- toring approximately every decade should underpin manage- ment of this endemic taxon.
Keywords Australia, cryptic species,Grey Range, long-term data, Petrogale xanthopus celeris, Queensland, semi-arid, yellow-footed rock-wallaby
The supplementary material for this article is available at
doi.org/10.1017/S0030605324000760
Introduction O
ne-third of global mammal extinctions in the past 200 years have occurred in Australia, with most being from
arid and semi-arid areas and involving species with a body weight of 35–5,500 g (Johnson & Isaac, 2009). The mamma- lian extinction toll in Australia has been recognized since the 1930s (Finlayson, 1935), and its causes and potential solutions have been debated for decades (McKenzie et al., 2007;Woinarski et al., 2015). However, mammal populations continue to decline across Australia, and the conservation status of many species remains uncertain (Woinarski et al., 2015, 2017). Estimating abundance and detecting population trends are difficult because of a lack of survey effort across vast inaccessible habitats, temporal changes in abundance driven by climate oscillations and the cryptic nature of some species (Dickman et al., 1999; Letnic & Dickman, 2010; Morton et al., 2011). This problem is compounded by poor understanding of the magnitude of and interactions between the threats facing many species (Woinarski et al., 2014). Such issues are common in conservation research across rangelands and are exemplified by the case of the yellow- footed rock-wallaby Petrogale xanthopus. The species was described from a specimen collected in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, in the 1850s (Gray, 1854). Seventy years passed before the species was collected in central- western Queensland at Terrachie Station, north-west of Quilpie, in 1922. These Queensland specimens were subse- quently described as a new species, Petrogale celeris (Le Souef, 1924). Five additional specimens were taken from Queensland during 1922–1931, but the taxon was not official- ly recorded again in Queensland until the 1970s, when anec- dotal reports from graziers and kangaroo shooters were
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. Oryx, 2025, 59(1), 123–135 © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605324000760
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