There was plenty of chaotic fun last week when Aussie Ark’s famous Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby joey, Rocket, paid a rare visit to head office on the Central Coast.
While carer Dean Reid tried to focus on his office work, Rocket explored the new environment which included bouncing on chairs and table tops – all perfect training for his future life in the great outdoors.
Rocket is now almost nine months old and has hit the “magic” weight of two kilograms.
Reid said theis rare marsupial was growing up in leaps and bounds and he was thrilled with the joey’s health and agility.
“In the wild Rocket would now be out of the pouch most of the time, exploring his surroundings,” he said.
“His species lives on rocky escarpments and are agile jumpers, bouncing from rock to rock.
“So Rocket’s time in the office was well spent training for this wild behaviour – bouncing on chairs and table tops.
“It was a bit hard to focus on office work with all the chaos of Rocket’s activity but thankfully he’s still very bonded to me, so easily calmed.
“Even when he’s having this sort of fun he comes back to me constantly, for reassurance.
“I just wave Rocket’s cloth pouch and he bounds back to me and tucks himself away.”
Rocket is close to being weaned from milk and is eating mostly solid food such as wattle and grass.
He will soon transition into full independence which means release into one of Aussie Ark’s breeding enclosures, meeting a girlfriend and helping to bolster the organisation’s “insurance population” of Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies in order to secure the species’ future and save them from extinction.
As a not-for-profit organisation, Aussie Ark raises the necessary funds to continue its ambitious vision.
Investment allows for the construction of captive facilities and predator-proof fencing on semi-wild parcels of land.
Aussie Ark is a registered environmental organisation and charitable institution under the Australian Charity and Not-for-Profit Commission.
For more information go to www.aussieark.org.au
Sue Murray