THE SECRETS SCAT KEEPS: SCAT CHAT EPISODE FIVE RUNDOWN

Scat Chat with WWF-Australia, hosted by me, Carlo Ritchie. Every episode of Scat Chat with WWF I get to the bottom of all the things that animal scat - or poo - can teach us about the animals that made it. Listen now for free at wwf.org.au/scatchat.

As a glasses-wearing gent myself, I have a soft spot for myopic marsupials. So, when I heard about the spectacled hare-wallaby, I was eager to see one. Ideally, with my glasses on, so it wasn’t blurry. I was also eager to see its scat. Or, in lieu of a visual, learn as much as I could about it. Fortunately, I host a podcast about poo. So, after years of wishing, I finally got my chance.

On the fifth episode of WWF-Australia’s new podcast, Scat Chat with WWF, I had not one, but two guests on the show; WWF-Australia’s Cultural & Environmental Project Officer Pius Gregory and WWF-Australia Species Conservation Manager, Dr Leigh-Ann Wooley.

Together, we sifted through the scat to learn about the importance of cross-cultural collaboration, how this once presumed extinct wallaby got its name, and how the discovery of a roadkill, and then its droppings, gave conservationists the drop on them.

In 2004 a dead spectacled hare-wallaby was discovered at Roebuck Plains near Broome, and soon after the subspecies was presumed locally extinct. However, that unfortunate roadkill turned out to be a vital clue that led to the rediscovery of the species in 2014.

As Pius Gregory put it, “WWF came to Yawuru, being the Traditional Owners of the area that the roadkill was found on. I was working at the time with the Country Managers and they came along and all they had was the paper to say, this is what the animal looked like; scats, tracks. So, we went out there like that.”

Armed with a pamphlet, the location of the roadkill and an in-depth knowledge of the Australian bush passed down over tens of thousands of years, Pius Gregory and the Yawuru Country Managers set out to track down a wallaby that hadn’t been seen in the Kimberley for a decade.

But, before we get into the discovery of the wallaby, we have to know what we’re searching for in the first place.

The spectacled hare-wallaby, or ‘manggaban’ in the Yawuru language, is unique in many ways. They don’t drink water, they’re the only wallaby who sleeps in self-built grass humpies along the edge of fire scars, (hence the importance of maintaining Traditional Fire Management practices on Country). They get their name from the orange rings around their eyes, which is an optical illusion, in every sense of the word, have quite shaggy fur and are only about 30cm tall when fully grown.

But what of their scat, I hear you ask, this is Scat Chat with WWF after all. Was their poo also unique? Did it also look like it was wearing glasses? How different was it to other wallaby scat?

As Pius Gregory explains, “It's a lot different. You can find the agile wallaby scat and stuff like that. It's a lot different to the spectacled hare-wallaby, as well as the black-footed rock-wallaby. They've all got different types of scat, and if you're in a place where you can't find tracks, well, you go to the next stop, which is scat.”

And according to Dr Leigh-AnnWoolley, nothing quite compares to that feeling you get when you actually finding some. “When we find fresh scat, that's the pinnacle,” she said.

So, when roadkill of the animal was found in 2004, as Pius Gregory said, WWF-Australia engaged with Traditional Owner groups, including rangers from Karajarri, Nyikina Mangala and Yawuru, of which Pius Gregory himself was a member. And they set out on their search, hopeful they hadn’t seen the last of their four-eyed friends.

According to Pius, if they wanted to find these wallabies, they only had one option. It was time to get their hands dirty, and dive into the world of scat. “In this Country, you can't find the tracks.” He said, “You got too much, and the ground’s too hard. Can't make, right. So, you go for the next best thing. They got to have a toilet somewhere.”

So, they trained their eyes to the scat.

The plan worked. They placed sensor cameras where they found fresh scat and waited, hopeful the wallaby would return to the scene.

The camera picked up a male and a female, and adding even more joy to what I imagine was an already joy-filled discovery, the female wallaby had an adorable young spectacle wearing joey in its pouch.

It was a discovery Dr Leigh-Ann Woolley says wouldn’t have been possible without the cross-cultural collaboration that took place, the bringing together of modern science and ancient Indigenous Knowledge. “Our work is really the foundation of what's known about spectacled hare-wallabies, in WA anyway, because they're much rarer."

"So, really, what Pius’ work, and our work, has done is establish the first real data on what's happening with spectacled hare-wallabies in WA. And it's the great cross-cultural collaboration between WWF and the Traditional Owners and Yawuru Country Managers, that has allowed this to happen. We would never know anything if it wasn't for the Yawuru Country Managers.”

Australia is home to diverse ecosystems of unique flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world. However, with 34 mammals known to have died out since European colonisation, with another 500+ wildlife species under immediate threat, Australia now has the highest mammal extinction rate in the world.

However, there are actions we can all do right now to help our wildlife thrive and restore what we as a nation have already lost. And, if the spectacled hare-wallaby has taught us anything, apart from how cool creatures who wear glasses are, it’s that this isn’t just a dream. Find out below.

Listen to Scat Chat with WWF now on your favourite podcast platform!

Or watch the episodes on YouTube.

Want to get more involved to help?

• Try out WWF’s 'My Backyard' tool to discover what threatened animals live in your area, and how you can help them.
• Keep your cats and dogs indoors in the evening to stop them predating our native wildlife.
• Intense grassfires can start when people drop lit cigarettes from their vehicles along highways or not containing fires poperly at campsites. So please keep wildlife safe by not throwing butts out the window and containing your fires.
• Follow Yawuru Country Managers on social media to learn more about their incredible work on Country.

We would like to thank the following partners for their support of the work mentioned in this episode:

Nyamba Buru Yawuru Aboriginal Corporation and Yawuru Country Managers

Supported by Lotterywest