Operation Rock Wallaby, the most widespread food drop ever done for brush-tailed rock wallabies, made headlines in Australia! Even as there are reports of koalas being declared as ‘endangered’ species in Australia, efforts are already underway to save rock wallabies and these measures have been taken by the New South Wales (NWS) government, according to Matt Kean, minister of energy and environment.

Officials dropped over a thousand kilograms of carrots and sweet potatoes across different colonies since last week, Kean stated. While wallabies tend to survive the bushfire, they are usually left stranded in their rocky habitats with limited natural food. To address this situation, food supplies have been air dropped.

In his tweet, Matt Kean shares an image of NPWS staff dropping food, mostly carrots and sweet potatoes, for brush-tailed rock wallabies’ colonies across NSW. According to reports, the brush tailed rock wallabies are marsupials, like kangaroos. However, they are known to have mostly disappeared and are considered to be endangered species in NSW.

While announcing Australia’s funding commitment to relief operations, Environment Minister Sussan Ley had stated that Australia’s koala population has taken an “extraordinary hit”, following which the government may list koalas as “endangered”.

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As you already know, the Australian bushfires are far from over. Over the past weeks, the world has witnessed heart wrenching images of burnt koalas and other animals, following which many individuals, celebrities and organisations came forward to donate generously for the cause of building koala hospitals and undertaking various service initiatives.

Nearly half a billion animals were impacted by the devastating Australian bushfires. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation had reported that over 1.25 billion animals are dead, citing how experts are of the opinion that hundreds of billions of insects may also have been wiped out altogether.

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Continuing with relief initiatives for rock wallabies, the NWS government is set to provide food supplies until natural food and water are replenished in the areas that have been badly hit by the bush fires.