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HARRY: The ultimate aim of
conservation is balance -

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balance between
the resources man needs

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and a respect for all other
living things.

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Here on Barrow Island, we have some of
the world's rarest animals -

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at least two species are thought
to be extinct on the mainland.

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My job -

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to ensure that all these animals

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continue to live a balanced life

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without destruction
by man and his works.

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(THEME MUSIC)

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When Barrow became an oilfield
in 1966,

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it could have been
the end for the animals.

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This happens in so many
parts of the world.

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But here, 60km off the north-west coast
of Australia,

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on this desert island,

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the wildlife thrives.

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I've been a conservation adviser
for the company since 1964.

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At one stage, they asked me
to join the staff,

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but I'd rather work as a consultant
because that way,

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I don't have any conflict
between what the company wants

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and what I have to do
as a conservationist.

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This island is unique.

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It's developed over 6,000 years
in total isolation

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from Aborigines and introduced animals
and plants

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which totally changed
the mainland ecology

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and changed it for all time.

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There. Come on, come on.

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Come on.

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Come on, come on.

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I got ya.

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Come on!

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Now, now, now. It's alright.

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It's alright. Yes, yes, yes.

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Oh, this poor old fella...

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Boy, old and all, he's giving it
a good go for us!

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He's just about at
the end of his time.

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He's reached, in human standards,

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about 85, maybe 90.

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He's been displaced in his territory.

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He's been fighting.

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You see the scars.

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And, of course,
the ticks have got in.

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Great, big ticks,
full of eggs, ready to drop off.

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The absolute mark of
a battered old man

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is his chewed ears.

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In case you're wondering...

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(HISSES ANGRILY)

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...if, on Barrow Island, anybody
can walk out and catch a kangaroo,

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it's not that easy!

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As I say, this poor old fella
is on his last legs.

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He's blind in one eye.

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See that cloud across his eyeball.

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So I was able to sneak up on him
on the blind side.

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By the time he jumped,
I was too close.

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One of the saddest things
about the job here

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is not interfering in
the natural processes of living.

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When you see an animal like this
that's old and sick and is gonna die,

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you leave it - you just
leave it like it is.

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It's the hardest part
of the job, I think.

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But it has to be,
because on Barrow Island,

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it is an island -
there's only limited space.

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Each one of these animals
needs about 40 acres.

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And so a population explosion means

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that the old, the weak
or the very young go to the wall.

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Every animal deserves
to die with some dignity.

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So I think I'll let this fellow

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back to his spot in the rocks.

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There you go. Go on!

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Everything in nature has a reason.
There's no accidents.

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No matter how strange or peculiar
it may appear,

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it has a valid reason.

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All of those tracks
are here for a reason.

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It's not this water.

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(SPITS)

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That's really brine.

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In fact, it's sea water
that's evaporated away.

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It's even saltier than sea water.
It's Dead Sea water.

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It comes in over the bar
during storms

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and fills up and evaporates.

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Really brine.

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The answer's over there,
on the other side.

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There's the answer.

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A soak.

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That's sweet water.
Little bit salt. Little bit.

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But certainly liveable.

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And just there, right alongside,

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two feet away,

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is the really supersaturated salt.

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Now, where's it come from?

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This whole sand hill
sits on a hard ledge.

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And the water that's
caught in the sand hill

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slowly trickles down

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and floats on top of the salt layer.

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And the kangaroos particularly -
they're the ones who do it mostly -

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come in and dig away here,

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expose the freshwater table

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and just have a tiny little soak.

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And all the other animals
that drink water know about it -

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the doves and the bandicoots
and the rat-kangaroos -

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and they all come in
and drink here too.

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And so this whole area becomes
an enormous mass of animals at night

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drinking while they can.

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Now, how does this fit in with animals'
ownership of areas, territories?

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Well, if we make a mud map...

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...so that this is the sand hill...

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...and here's the waterhole here...

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...we've got the soakages
coming out along that edge.

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Now, normally a euro
would own all of that.

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Because it's such an important resource
to survival,

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we have two things involved here.

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One of them is territory,

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which belongs to
an individual animal,

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and the other one is range,

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which is an area over which
an animal can move

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and be tolerated by other animals.

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So what we've got here is
a whole series of territories

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that overlap...

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...like this.

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And their overlapping point

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is a common range

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in which all animals will come

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and tolerate each other.

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It's a bit like people
have their own house.

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If you bump into somebody in
the street, you may apologise,

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but you don't worry
there are other people on the street.

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But the moment a stranger comes into
your house... That's your territory.

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The street's your range
and the house is your territory.

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It belongs to you and you
object to people coming in

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unless you want them there.

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In the same way here,

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all animals can come in and drink,

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but if this animal
comes across to this area,

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then there's a fight
to drive him back out.

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This is part of the answer to the
problem of the euro on Barrow Island.

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My early work here indicated
the euro was dying out.

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In 1964, when I first counted them,

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I got, I think, about 200 animals.

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And then, in 1966 and 1969,
I was getting less than 50,

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and it looked very bad.

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At that time, I didn't understand
this range/territory situation.

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What was happening - I was
spotlighting just after a cyclone

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and the animals were evenly spread
all over the island

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and I was getting very big counts.

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And then, later when
I was spotlighting,

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I was spotlighting in
the stress times of the year,

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the very harsh times,

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and the animals were all congregated
on these few places -

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these common ranges.

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And they just didn't happen
to be on spotlighting ranges,

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so I didn't see any animals.

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And that's why drawing conclusions
on insufficient evidence

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is very, very dangerous.

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Now we know that the population of
euros on Barrow Island is quite static.

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It fluctuates a little bit.

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It's dynamic - it moves
up and down to that degree.

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But we've got a secondary test.

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We pick up skulls of
dead animals in caves.

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We look at their teeth and that
tells us the age the animal dies.

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And we know from that
there are no premature deaths.

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Every animal reaches
completely adult age.

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That means there's no problems
for the euros on Barrow Island,

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despite the oilfield.

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That makes us pretty happy too.

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It means that our systems of
conservation are working here.

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Although the dominant vegetation
on Barrow is spinifex,

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there's over 200 species
of other plants

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which are very important
in the ecosystems.

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They've got exactly the same problems
as the animals.

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They need protection
against being eaten,

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protection against their competitors

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and most of all,
protection against the climate -

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the heat and the wind.

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Here's a couple of different plants.

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Corchorus and sida.

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Although they look fairly different,

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they both use the same technique -

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a complete covering of fur,
felt-like fur, across the leaves.

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This one's leaves are
a bit more... prickly.

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The fur's not so cottony,
it's more prickly.

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And you'll notice in both plants
the young leaves stay closed up,

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because they're succulent and tender

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and liable to lose a lot of moisture.

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And the corchorus,

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they stay completely closed up
like a clamshell.

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This is caustic bush -
or sarcostemma is the scientific name.

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These things are just the stems.

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So that helps to control
its water output.

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It oozes a sticky white sap

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which is, as the name suggests,
caustic - very burning.

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Here's one with real problems.

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Right on the edge of the cliff,
getting all the salt spray and wind,

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just growing in a crevice
in the rocks.

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So, how does it protect itself?

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First of all, it has very few leaves,

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and those few it has are covered with
a dense mat of fur, like cotton wool.

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So if an animal eats it, it just
gets a mouthful of cotton wool.

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Just to help it even further,

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its armed with a murderous
set of spines.

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Just to touch them and they stick in.

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When you live on a desert island,

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things get a bit out of proportion.

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But the boys here haven't
lost their sense of humour.

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By comparison with the spinifex,

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these 30-foot trees
are as big as giants.

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So they call this
'the Valley of the Giants'.

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About 20,000 years ago,

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this was an old valley,

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and all the mud, the stone
were washed down

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and deposited here.

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This is, in fact, a fossil valley.

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When it rains now,
the water penetrates there

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and all the year round,
there's water about 10 feet down.

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The long-reaching roots
of these eucalypts

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go down and tap the water -

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tap the water table.

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And so we have
a little patch of them.

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The way these protect themselves
against the elements -

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their leaves hang down
so that the edge is towards the sun

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and they get minimal
amount of light on them

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and minimal water loss.

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And against animals, the leaves
are coated in a waxy substance.

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If you break it off,

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it's got a very... (SNIFFS)
...very strong, familiar odour

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to every Australian -

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the smell of eucalyptus.

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Eucalyptus is readily told from
all the other plants by its flowers.

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The flowers are absolutely typical
of eucalypt.

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Little caps or operculums on them.

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And as they ripen, these peel off

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and the flower comes out
in its full glory.

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They don't look terribly glorious,
but on Barrow Island,

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they support a whole range of life.

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Honey-eaters and insects
all come for the nectar flow.

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and, of course, they, in turn,
pollinate the flowers

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and we come to the seeds.

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These seed capsules are quite ripe

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and they're now ready
to play their part

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in the cycle of life
and survival on Barrow Island.

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Most of them will be eaten.

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Some will survive
and continue these eucalypts

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in the Valley of the Giants.

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Every visit I make

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reveals another tiny piece of
this complex ecological pattern,

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this web of life on Barrow Island.

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One mammal of especial interest
is the spectacled hare-wallaby.

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Once widely spread
across the mainland,

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today it's probably extinct

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except for this thriving community
here on Barrow Island.

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Ooh, this is one of the good bits.

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A shower and clothing

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00:16:05,287 --> 00:16:07,887
and a drink
and an airconditioned laboratory,

252
00:16:07,887 --> 00:16:11,516
'cause that's my way of fighting
the conditions on Barrow Island.

253
00:16:13,447 --> 00:16:15,358
Our main study animal...

254
00:16:16,887 --> 00:16:20,127
...is the only animal we catch
and really work on,

255
00:16:20,127 --> 00:16:22,880
and that's the hare-wallaby.

256
00:16:26,167 --> 00:16:28,522
This fellow, we caught last night.

257
00:16:30,807 --> 00:16:34,807
And he's been 12 hours
in a special cage

258
00:16:34,807 --> 00:16:39,527
which catches his urine, body water.

259
00:16:39,527 --> 00:16:44,367
He was weighed before
he went into the cage

260
00:16:44,367 --> 00:16:46,487
and then he'll be weighed again.

261
00:16:46,487 --> 00:16:48,567
The reason we brought this one in -

262
00:16:48,567 --> 00:16:50,687
he lost his tag.

263
00:16:50,687 --> 00:16:53,599
He's been tagged before, but he's been
fighting and lost his tag.

264
00:16:55,567 --> 00:16:58,247
Now, now. Steady down.
Now, now, now, now.

265
00:16:58,247 --> 00:16:59,760
It's OK.

266
00:17:00,767 --> 00:17:03,725
These little tags go
in the animal's ear...

267
00:17:05,247 --> 00:17:06,847
...like so...
(HISSES)

268
00:17:06,847 --> 00:17:08,360
Alright!

269
00:17:10,367 --> 00:17:11,516
(HISSES)

270
00:17:17,567 --> 00:17:19,046
(HISSES)

271
00:17:21,807 --> 00:17:24,647
Now, in spite of all that fuss,
it didn't hurt him at all.

272
00:17:24,647 --> 00:17:28,807
It's a stainless steel tag

273
00:17:28,807 --> 00:17:30,727
with a number on.

274
00:17:30,727 --> 00:17:32,687
Now, that stays with him forever.

275
00:17:32,687 --> 00:17:34,167
That's like a wedding ring.

276
00:17:34,167 --> 00:17:36,237
And that's his number.

277
00:17:38,327 --> 00:17:40,727
Just wipe that bit of stuff
out of his eye.

278
00:17:40,727 --> 00:17:44,197
That's something that happens
to hare-wallabies. Bit dry.

279
00:17:46,607 --> 00:17:47,847
(HISSES)

280
00:17:47,847 --> 00:17:49,647
Now, I need
a couple of measurements.

281
00:17:49,647 --> 00:17:51,727
I need the length of his hind foot.

282
00:17:51,727 --> 00:17:53,797
Now, be a good fellow and stay still.

283
00:17:59,847 --> 00:18:03,920
And the length of that bone
that goes from your hip to your knee.

284
00:18:05,247 --> 00:18:09,087
With a hopping animal,
that's very important,

285
00:18:09,087 --> 00:18:13,807
because that is the only bone
in the body that stays constant -

286
00:18:13,807 --> 00:18:15,927
doesn't change with age.

287
00:18:15,927 --> 00:18:19,078
It's 155.

288
00:18:22,927 --> 00:18:26,167
I also have a couple of swabs.

289
00:18:26,167 --> 00:18:29,527
With that eye being
a little bit infected,

290
00:18:29,527 --> 00:18:33,607
it's a possibility that it might be
a disease of some sort.

291
00:18:33,607 --> 00:18:35,567
There are diseases on Barrow Island.

292
00:18:35,567 --> 00:18:38,607
These are sterile swabs.
We've two in each jar.

293
00:18:38,607 --> 00:18:41,360
So we'll just take
a swab along there.

294
00:18:42,887 --> 00:18:44,807
And we'll culture that out

295
00:18:44,807 --> 00:18:48,322
and see if there is... something.

296
00:18:49,887 --> 00:18:52,487
Just make a note on there
that that's the eye

297
00:18:52,487 --> 00:18:54,927
before we get into trouble.

298
00:18:54,927 --> 00:18:57,725
There's a good fellow.
Yes, it didn't hurt a bit.

299
00:18:59,327 --> 00:19:01,767
Put the rest of the details on after.

300
00:19:01,767 --> 00:19:05,727
And another swab -
another sterile swab -

301
00:19:05,727 --> 00:19:07,763
from the mouth.

302
00:19:08,807 --> 00:19:11,047
Open up. Come on, let's have a look.

303
00:19:11,047 --> 00:19:12,567
That's it.

304
00:19:12,567 --> 00:19:14,637
You help me. That's right,
give me a help.

305
00:19:20,767 --> 00:19:22,807
So that's the other swab.
We've two swabs.

306
00:19:22,807 --> 00:19:25,607
Make a note of that.
Everything has to be recorded.

307
00:19:25,607 --> 00:19:28,647
Eye, mouth.

308
00:19:28,647 --> 00:19:31,527
The only other thing is
any comment on the animal.

309
00:19:31,527 --> 00:19:33,447
(HISSES)

310
00:19:33,447 --> 00:19:36,007
(GENTLY) Oh, come on! Simmer down!

311
00:19:37,047 --> 00:19:39,847
Interesting to note - as soon as I touch
the ears, he gets very upset,

312
00:19:39,847 --> 00:19:43,087
because the ears are the critical place
in hare-wallabies.

313
00:19:43,087 --> 00:19:45,527
As soon as you touch their ears,
they think you're threatening them.

314
00:19:45,527 --> 00:19:47,087
They get attacked.

315
00:19:47,087 --> 00:19:49,327
I can scratch his tummy
and he doesn't worry at all

316
00:19:49,327 --> 00:19:51,287
or his feet or his hands.

317
00:19:51,287 --> 00:19:53,407
As soon as I touch his ears,
he's in trouble,

318
00:19:53,407 --> 00:19:55,447
because that's their
real threat thing.

319
00:19:55,447 --> 00:19:56,927
And you can tell a damaged animal

320
00:19:56,927 --> 00:19:58,918
by the amount of chewing
he's got on his ears.

321
00:19:59,967 --> 00:20:04,167
You're probably wondering,
"Why hare-wallabies particularly?"

322
00:20:04,167 --> 00:20:06,647
They're the balance animal
on Barrow Island.

323
00:20:06,647 --> 00:20:11,807
They're just big enough
and easy enough to see and record

324
00:20:11,807 --> 00:20:13,447
to be a good working animal

325
00:20:13,447 --> 00:20:16,487
but they're also
an extremely good animal

326
00:20:16,487 --> 00:20:19,407
for adaptation to the environment.

327
00:20:19,407 --> 00:20:22,327
Already we've found out
they don't drink -

328
00:20:22,327 --> 00:20:26,287
that is, water - they get their moisture
from their food.

329
00:20:26,287 --> 00:20:28,647
They have certain sized territories.

330
00:20:28,647 --> 00:20:32,767
And we know about
their shelter needs,

331
00:20:32,767 --> 00:20:35,767
how much heat they can take
and how much heat kills them.

332
00:20:35,767 --> 00:20:41,087
We know... we think we know
what killed them in the mainland.

333
00:20:41,087 --> 00:20:44,207
Not the predation by foxes and cats

334
00:20:44,207 --> 00:20:45,727
but the destruction of big spinifex,

335
00:20:45,727 --> 00:20:47,445
big, clumpy spinifex they lived in.

336
00:20:48,447 --> 00:20:50,767
We know things about
their anatomy too.

337
00:20:50,767 --> 00:20:54,767
They've got a kidney
that's so designed

338
00:20:54,767 --> 00:20:56,527
that they recycle their urine

339
00:20:56,527 --> 00:21:00,327
in such a way as to keep
the moisture in their body.

340
00:21:00,327 --> 00:21:02,487
This is a fairly common trick.

341
00:21:02,487 --> 00:21:07,607
But no animal that we know does it
as effectively as the hare-wallaby.

342
00:21:07,607 --> 00:21:12,127
There's all sorts of other things
about them on the pathological side.

343
00:21:12,127 --> 00:21:17,367
Things like their blood type and
the way it clots on the slightest cut.

344
00:21:17,367 --> 00:21:19,127
There's no bleeding loss.

345
00:21:19,127 --> 00:21:21,087
It clots immediately and stops.

346
00:21:21,087 --> 00:21:26,047
All of these things are all
building up into a total picture

347
00:21:26,047 --> 00:21:28,927
of what makes a hare-wallaby tick.

348
00:21:28,927 --> 00:21:34,647
And when you think that we've got
15 mammals on Barrow Island

349
00:21:34,647 --> 00:21:37,927
and about 80 species of birds

350
00:21:37,927 --> 00:21:39,847
and 40 species of reptiles,

351
00:21:39,847 --> 00:21:44,367
and we only know that much about
one of them - the hare-wallaby -

352
00:21:44,367 --> 00:21:46,967
you see we've got a long way to go.

353
00:21:46,967 --> 00:21:49,087
And that's what lab work's about too.

354
00:21:49,087 --> 00:21:51,362
I'll just put him back in his bag.

355
00:21:52,447 --> 00:21:54,687
(HISSES)

356
00:21:54,687 --> 00:21:56,887
(GENTLY) Alright, alright.

357
00:21:56,887 --> 00:21:57,887
(HISSES)

358
00:21:57,887 --> 00:22:00,127
If you ever get the chance
to handle a hare-wallaby,

359
00:22:00,127 --> 00:22:03,767
that's the right way to handle him -
by the tail like that.

360
00:22:03,767 --> 00:22:05,367
He's quite happy that way.
(HISSES)

361
00:22:05,367 --> 00:22:07,727
He doesn't sound very happy, does he?
Never mind.

362
00:22:07,727 --> 00:22:09,767
I'll hold him there for a moment.

363
00:22:09,767 --> 00:22:13,396
Now, the comments on that animal are
"No ticks...

364
00:22:15,207 --> 00:22:16,765
"...good condition...

365
00:22:19,087 --> 00:22:23,127
...and "fur undamaged".

366
00:22:23,127 --> 00:22:25,007
In other words,
he hasn't been fighting.

367
00:22:25,007 --> 00:22:26,887
He's a male, but he hasn't had
territorial fights -

368
00:22:26,887 --> 00:22:28,407
he hasn't been fighting
for territory.

369
00:22:28,407 --> 00:22:30,007
He's in really good shape.

370
00:22:30,007 --> 00:22:32,927
So he'll now go back
to where he belongs,

371
00:22:32,927 --> 00:22:36,247
join up with his wife or wives.

372
00:22:36,247 --> 00:22:38,327
This is the sort of thing
we've found out.

373
00:22:38,327 --> 00:22:40,367
This fellow...

374
00:22:40,367 --> 00:22:43,807
This fellow, as the paper says,
we got him here.

375
00:22:43,807 --> 00:22:48,847
Now, based on the number of animals
I've already taken,

376
00:22:48,847 --> 00:22:51,156
he's got to be one of three males.

377
00:22:52,287 --> 00:22:55,647
His territory is about that size,

378
00:22:55,647 --> 00:22:58,127
and he overlaps the territory
of five females,

379
00:22:58,127 --> 00:22:59,807
which are much smaller territories.

380
00:22:59,807 --> 00:23:04,047
So when I say "He'll be released
to go back to his wife,"

381
00:23:04,047 --> 00:23:05,527
I really mean 'wives'.

382
00:23:05,527 --> 00:23:08,687
And what happens, we think,
is they move in a cycle

383
00:23:08,687 --> 00:23:11,167
and enjoy the favours
of a lot of ladies.

384
00:23:11,167 --> 00:23:12,647
But it's not really like people,

385
00:23:12,647 --> 00:23:16,767
because these animals only are
sexually attractive at certain times,

386
00:23:16,767 --> 00:23:19,964
and he's gotta have a lot of wives
to find one who's willing, as it were.

387
00:23:21,047 --> 00:23:23,287
The females are permanently pregnant.

388
00:23:23,287 --> 00:23:25,847
That is, once they have a joey,

389
00:23:25,847 --> 00:23:28,927
they have another one ready to come

390
00:23:28,927 --> 00:23:31,447
but it doesn't develop
until the season's right -

391
00:23:31,447 --> 00:23:33,607
a cyclone comes or rainfall comes

392
00:23:33,607 --> 00:23:36,127
and the grass and spinifex
starts to grow -

393
00:23:36,127 --> 00:23:39,287
and at that time,
the joey then starts to develop.

394
00:23:39,287 --> 00:23:42,767
So even if all the males
were wiped out by a catastrophe,

395
00:23:42,767 --> 00:23:44,607
there'd still be another wave -

396
00:23:44,607 --> 00:23:49,158
another population or another generation
of hare-wallabies would come up.

397
00:23:50,687 --> 00:23:52,327
That's just part of the lab work.

398
00:23:52,327 --> 00:23:55,287
There's lots of other parts.
They're pretty boring and uninteresting.

399
00:23:55,287 --> 00:23:56,847
They don't involve handling animals

400
00:23:56,847 --> 00:23:59,887
while doing computer analyses
and sums and arithmetic

401
00:23:59,887 --> 00:24:01,367
which I'm not very keen on anyway,

402
00:24:01,367 --> 00:24:03,562
so we'll leave it at that, I think.

403
00:24:09,207 --> 00:24:10,959
So that's really why I'm here.

404
00:24:12,047 --> 00:24:15,527
This delicate fabric
of living, of life,

405
00:24:15,527 --> 00:24:19,679
plants and animals
interwoven in a glorious net.

406
00:24:20,927 --> 00:24:23,767
It's taken centuries
for this to happen

407
00:24:23,767 --> 00:24:26,367
and we can destroy it so easily.

408
00:24:26,367 --> 00:24:30,967
My job - to keep it
so that your kids and mine

409
00:24:30,967 --> 00:24:33,640
can see it all
in the times to come...

410
00:24:34,647 --> 00:24:40,404
...big animals, little animals, plants,
right down to the sea itself.

411
00:24:42,207 --> 00:24:44,927
We need them not just
for their own sake,

412
00:24:44,927 --> 00:24:49,607
but for the sake of now
and tomorrow, for people.

413
00:24:49,607 --> 00:24:54,123
All this has to be here
for everybody forever.

414
00:25:00,927 --> 00:25:03,287
But there's no single simple solution

415
00:25:03,287 --> 00:25:05,607
to the problems of
continued existence.

416
00:25:05,607 --> 00:25:10,283
Any answers are as complicated
as life itself.

417
00:25:11,367 --> 00:25:13,517
Only one thing is certain.

418
00:25:14,767 --> 00:25:18,247
If we are to preserve our environment

419
00:25:18,247 --> 00:25:20,727
and to save this priceless wildlife,

420
00:25:20,727 --> 00:25:25,357
we need much, much more knowledge.