Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world, yet the kangaroo and wallaby populations are flourishing. While this may seem to be a good thing for the endemic species, the country itself views them as pests. In response to their growing numbers, the government has provided people with a licence to cull them. To prove to locals that they can coexist with these animals, ecologist Shai Ager founded The Agile Project.
“Almost 90 million kangaroos and wallabies have been wilfully killed for commercial purposes in the last 20 years,” Ager says. This includes selling their flesh at the Australian pet-food market, or to use their skin to produce bags, shoes, wallets, and other goods. These macropods come into frequent conflict with people, and road accidents present another serious threat. With a community of volunteers, Ager is rescuing and rehabilitating wallabies and other indigenous species in Cairns.
Running a 24-hour hotline for people to report injured wildlife, Ager’s team is ready to attend to any incident. They also deploy a team to patrol roadside hotspots where wallabies are most likely to be hurt. The Agile Project works with the Cairns Regional Council, the Department of Main Roads, and other local agencies to establish appropriate fencing and speed restrictions in areas where wallabies are threatened. “We need to think of sustainable and empathetic solutions to man-made problems,” Ager says.
In 2020, The Agile Project won a groundbreaking case to relocate 400 wallabies that were displaced due to a housing development in the Trinity Beach area. “If we do this correctly and prove that it is successful, it’s going to create a precedent here in Australia that hopefully other wildlife groups all around the country can use,” Ager says. With her team, Ager shows communities that both people and Australia’s animals have the right to a safe home.
Footage and photos by The Agile Project were used in the creation of this film.
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