BIODIVERSITY studies have now been completed on the site where more than 150 kangaroos will be relocated just outside Bathurst.
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The kangaroos, which currently live around the Mount Panorama precinct, are being relocated after land clearing works in April, 2016 sent many fleeing into town.
The works were being conducted along College Road in an area acquired by Bathurst Regional Council for a second track at the Mount.
Since then, plans have been formulated to relocate the kangaroos to a new site.
Ecologist Ray Mjadwesch has been in charge of completing a biodiversity study of the new site, which is on private land within 100 kilometres of Bathurst.
The study has already revealed a number of threatened bird species, including the gang-gang cockatoo and dusky woodswallows.
There are already resident kangaroos on the site, as well as foxes, deer and wild pigs.
Part of the release site features a box gum woodland which is an endangered ecological community.
“It’s in order to show people what’s there now and look at it over the years to see if kangaroos have any impact on that site,” he said. “It’s given us masses and masses of interesting information.”
We’re taking them from an unsafe environment to a safe environment.
- Ecologist Ray Mjadwesch
Multiple cameras installed at the release site for three months late last year have also captured around 75,000 images to add to the ongoing research.
Every kangaroo released into the site will receive an ear tag to allow researchers to monitor their dispersal and movement patterns.
For many of the volunteers involved in the relocation project, including Mr Mjadwesch, they are treating the relocation as a rescue to protect the roos and motorists in and around Mount Panorama.
“We’re taking them from an unsafe environment to a safe environment,” he said.
A condition of the relocation licence, granted through the National Parks and Wildlife, was that 10 of the kangaroos must be be fitted with a GPS collar to monitor their movements following release.
Each collar costs $3600 and Bathurst Kangaroo Project’s Helen Bergen has put out a call for sponsors of the collars.
The kangaroos are ready to be relocated, however, donations of 1800-2000 millimetre high fencing mesh/wire for a temporary compound at the release site are still needed.