Click the right arrow to see video footage of the potaroo.
The long-nosed potaroo.
NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker has released to the public what the NSW National Parks and Wildlife service (NPWS) has described as “extraordinary pictures” of a brief moment in the life of one of the country’s rarer and more secretive ground dwelling marsupials, the Long-nosed Potoroo, on the Far South Coast of NSW.
NPWS scientist, Dr Andrew Claridge, says that the clip shows something that could never have been witnessed in the wild without such technology.
“This is a threatened species in NSW. It’s rare and cryptic. So seeing this mother with a pouch joey leaving and entering the pouch and being groomed is quite exceptional.
“As far as we are aware this is the very first footage of a Long-nosed Potoroo in the wild providing such information, “There’s no doubt that Ben Boyd National Park is an amazing haven for small ground dwelling native animals, which, in normal circumstances, would struggle under the pressure of fox and cat predation,” Dr Claridge said.
