First nations rangers and scientists are on a mission in WA, to protect the near threatened brush tailed Mulgara, a relative of the Tasmanian Devil. 100 of the marsupials are being moved from their desert home to an island off the Shark Bay coast, which has been cleared of feral predators.
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00:00 It's the hour before sunrise in Western Australia's Goldfields region and we lunar
00:06 mar to rangers and scientists check traps they set the day before.
00:12 "It's a big one, yeah.
00:14 Is it a boy?
00:15 Probably if he's that big."
00:16 With permission from the mar to traditional owners, these conservationists are hoping
00:21 to catch 100 brosh-tailed mulgares, a carnivorous marsupial related to the Tasmanian devil.
00:29 One by one, the tiny animals are checked, measured and recorded.
00:34 "A little microchip ID, just in the back of the shoulder blade here, so it's a little
00:40 injection."
00:41 Microchips will help track the animals' progress after they move to dark Hartog Island, 800
00:49 kilometres away.
00:50 They'll be joining seven other native animals already translocated to the Predator Free
00:56 World Heritage Site.
00:58 "The idea is that we're trying to return the island state back to as near as possible
01:06 what we think it was probably like before Europeans first set eyes on it."
01:11 But the success of this project depends on the collaboration between scientists and mar
01:17 to rangers.
01:19 Scientists teach the rangers how to set traps and record data.
01:23 The rangers share knowledge about their country.
01:26 "A little bit of bush tucker, we call them darron, like a little plum, bush plum."
01:34 "It encompasses this amazing version of land management that basically covers, you know,
01:40 from cultural aspects to all of our natural ecological aspects that we're wanting to work
01:46 together to protect."
01:48 "So the mar to rangers and the scientists from the department have caught 13 mulgares
01:53 today and we're now going to go back to the homestead to prepare the animals for the flight."
02:01 The release will help protect this unique animal, which is close to being listed as
02:06 a vulnerable species.
02:08 And knowledge gained will continue to be shared.
02:11 "The main benefit of the program is to give the local Wolloona mob ownership of connecting
02:19 back to their country and that ownership comes in the form of jobs and security to be able
02:27 to share their, pass their knowledge on to their youth, their next generation."
02:32 Making sure the next generation can also care for country.
02:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]