With fires still blazing in Australia, brush-tailed rock-wallabies are getting by with a little help from public servants.
The government of New South Wales is getting ready to drop from the air thousands of kilograms of carrots and sweet potatoes for the endangered and stressed critters.
“The wallabies were already under stress from the ongoing drought, making survival challenging” without help, said NSW environment minister Matt Kean in a statement Sunday.
The aerial food drops are expected to help the survival of endangered species like the wallabies amid the larger wildlife recovery efforts underway across the state in the aftermath of bushfires.
Photos posted recently on Kean’s Twitter account show carrots toppling out of a box high above the land.
According to an initial assessment, the fires have destroyed the living space of “several important brush-tailed rock-wallaby populations,” Kean said.
“The wallabies typically survive the fire itself, but are then left stranded with limited natural food as the fire takes out the vegetation around their rocky habitat.”
The aerial food drop announced Sunday is the largest one yet for the wallabies, Kean said.
The state is also installing cameras to monitor food intake and the variety of animals benefiting from the operation, he added.
