# Australia's Elusive Nabarlek Returns to Remote Region After Half-Century Absence
About as long as a loaf of bread, the nabarlek uses rough pads on its feet to grip sheer rock as it hops around cliffs and crevices on its strong hind legs. By day, this secretive creature stays hidden from predators. By night, it emerges to feed. And for the past 50 years, it had vanished from scientific records across a remote stretch of Western Australia—until now.
Australian conservationists working with the Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation recently captured the nabarlek on camera at two sites in the Kimberley region where the species had not been scientifically recorded before. The detections occurred in a remote region where the nabarlek had not been documented for 50 years.
"This is very exciting and great news for the species," said Larissa Potter, a senior field ecologist with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. "It's also reassuring, as it indicates that this threatened wallaby is persisting in places we didn't previously know about."
Finding a nabarlek presents multiple challenges. The animal is difficult to locate and equally hard to verify once detected. The nabarlek looks nearly identical to the monjon, another small rock-wallaby that shares its range, and its genes very closely resemble those of the short-eared rock-wallaby.
To confirm their discovery, researchers deployed five motion-triggered cameras that operated at night. They reviewed photographs to determine that the short-eared rock-wallaby, which can be dismissed through images because it doesn't look the same as the nabarlek, is not found at the sites. Then, to distinguish between the photographed wallabies and the roughly identical monjon, scientists collected scat samples for DNA analysis. The genetic results confirmed the presence of nabarlek.
The discovery offers a rare bright spot for a species threatened by shifting fire regimes and introduced predators. On paper, the nabarlek's range includes parts of northern and northwestern Australia. "However, within this broad distribution, the number of locations where the species has been recorded is small," Potter said. "And they have not been recorded from some areas for a long time."
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"Most of the mainland records are old museum specimens from the 1950s and 1970s," Potter added, explaining why the recent sightings represent such a significant finding for ecologists.
Potter said the new detections show "that the species is more widely distributed than previously thought, which is good news for their long-term survival and conservation outcome."
The nabarlek distinguishes itself among wallabies through an unusual trait: it is the only wallaby that can continually replace its molar teeth throughout its life, rather like a shark. Potter noted this unique characteristic may be linked to the animal's diet of tough shrubs and grasses.
Much remains unknown about nabarlek populations in the Kimberley. Some studies were conducted on the species in the Northern Territory decades ago, Potter said, but "we don't know how transferable some of this research is to the Kimberley and these populations." To better conserve the newly found animals, scientists want to understand their population size, breeding biology, diet, distribution, genetics and threats.
"We want to know more about them," said Inga Pedersen, a Dambeemangaddee Traditional Owner. "Is it a healthy population? We want to compare them to the ones on the islands and make sure this animal isn't disappearing."
**Sources:**
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/australias-second-smallest-rock-wallaby-reappears-in-a-region-where-it-had-not-been-seen-for-50-years-180989469/