Morphological and genetic studies have raised doubts about the validity of the three (originally four) subspecies. Courtenay (1993) found limited morphological differences between the extant subspecies. Eldridge et al. (2004) found that the Bernier and Dorre Island populations had substantially lower genetic diversity than the remnant mainland population. Eldridge et al. (2019) found no evidence that these island populations should be regarded as separate subspecies and suggested that L. h. dorreae be synonymised with the priority taxon L. h. bernieri. However, the three extant subpopulations represent different conservation management units.

L. h. hirsutus is Extinct;

L. h. bernieri is Vulnerable;

L. h. ‘central Australian subspecies’ is Endangered.

The Rufous Hare-wallaby is assessed as Near Threatened. The species became ‘Extinct in the Wild’ on the Australian mainland, but remained on Bernier and Dorre Islands in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Lagorchestes hirsutus ‘central Australian subspecies’, has been successfully translocated to Trimouille Island, Montebello Islands (assisted colonisation), Matuwa Kurrara Kurrara National Park (formerly Lorna Glen), all in Western Australia and Newhaven Sanctuary, in the Northern Territory. L. h. bernieri has been translocated to Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia. The species now occurs at six locations, all of which are threatened by possible introduction of non-native predators or exotic disease and three of which occur in Shark Bay where a drying climate will threaten subpopulation viability. 

The population size is increasing because of translocations, so it does not meet Criterion A or Criterion C. The extent of occurrence (EOO) is c. 700,000 km², but sites where it occurs are mere pinpricks within a former large distribution. Trimouille Island was an introduction and Dirk Hartog Island is treated as a conservation introduction because evidence of the species’ previous occurrence there was solely anecdotal and is uncertain (i.e. no historical specimens or subfossil remains). Area of occupancy (AOO) is 500 km², and there are less than 10 locations, meeting the threshold for Vulnerable B2, but there is no evidence of continuing decline and the population does not show extreme fluctuations. All sites are and will be affected by climate change and if any of the translocation sites, is lost, the species would meet a threatened category. Additionally, the persistence of all extant subpopulations depends on continuing surveillance and management to prevent the colonisation of island refuges by introduced predators, and to maintain exclusion of predators from fenced reserves on the mainland. Failure of such management would result in rapid extinction of subpopulations and decline in AOO. For these reasons the Rufous Hare-wallaby is assessed as Near Threatened, approaching Vulnerable B2ab(i,ii,iv).

The Rufous Hare-wallaby was formerly widely distributed in central and western Australia. It is now restricted to two natural populations on Bernier (42.7 km²) and Dorre (51.6 km²) Islands in Shark Bay, Western Australia, reintroduced populations at Matuwa Kurrara-Kurrara (11 km²) [Western Australia] and Newhaven Sanctuary (95 km²) [Northern Territory] and an introduced population on Trimouille Island (5.2 km²) [Western Australia]. There is also a translocated population on Dirk Hartog Island (630 km²) [Western Australia], which is treated as a conservation introduction as evidence of their previous occurrence was solely anecdotal (i.e. no historical specimens or subfossil remains).

Small mainland island populations at Watarrka National Park, Northern Territory (1 km²) and Scotia, New South Wales (1 km²) have been translocated to Newhaven and the species is no longer present at Watarrka and Scotia.

There are three recognised taxa:

Lagorchetes hirsutus hirsutus: formerly occurred only in the south-west of Western Australia. It is extinct.

L. h. bernieri: restricted to Bernier and Dorre Islands, Western Australia.

An unnamed subspecies of L. hirsutus from the Tanami Desert on the Australian mainland: this undescribed subspecies was once widespread in central Australian deserts (Burbidge et al. 1988). It was extinct in the wild for a time but is now represented in several translocated wild populations.

Subpopulations on Bernier and Dorre Islands are small and fluctuate in response to rainfall (Chapman et al. 2015), collectively with probably <c. 2000 mature individuals during periodic drought. The most recent estimates (2019) based on Distance sampling from spotlighting were 958 (SE ±202) for Bernier and 1,955 (SE ±423) (Sims et al. 2020). The 2022 estimate for Trimouille Island using the same method was 1,274 (SE ±264) (C. Sims in litt.). The latest estimate for Newhaven Sanctuary based on trapping was 332 (SE ±195) in March 2024 (Australian Wildlife Conservancy in litt.). Abundance at Matuwa Kurrara-Kurrara was estimated at 120 (SE ±38.8), using spatially explicit capture-recapture based on individual data obtained from DNA from faecal pellets (scats) (Treloar et al. 2024). Recent abundance on Dirk Hartog Island has not yet been estimated. However, the number of individuals identified from DNA obtained from scat surveys at three monitoring sites on Dirk Hartog Island near the original release sites increased by an average of 993% between 2020 and 2023 (DBCA 2024). A conservative population estimate across the island would be 1,500 mature individuals.

Rufous Hare-wallabies occupied a variety of vegetation types, mainly on sandy surfaces, in semi-arid and arid western and central Australia. On Bernier and Dorre Islands they occupy the whole of each island, but are more common in some vegetation types than others. In central Australia, they were widespread and abundant in hummock grass (Triodia spp.) deserts, and also inhabited gravelly plains, dunes and mulga (Acacia aneura) low woodlands with tussock grass (Burbidge et al. 1988). Individuals sheltered in a scrape beneath spinifex hummocks or in a short burrow, especially during summer (Burbidge et al. 1988). Bolton and Latz (1978) considered the tight patchy burns created by Aboriginal people before European occupation to have favoured the species, and the generally large, mainly summer fires in recent years to have been a major reason for its decline. Bolton and Latz (1978) found that plants grazed by the Rufous Hare-wallaby in the Tanami Desert were whole plants of Fimbristylis dichotoma and Calandrinia remota, leaves of Brunonia australis, Bassia astrocarpa and F. solidifolia and seed heads of Triodia pungens, T. schinzii, Bulbostylis barbata and Eragrostis eriopoda. In south-western Australia, Leake (1962) reported that, near Kellerberrin, Western Australia, the species occurred in sandplains with kwongkan (heath) vegetation. Lundie-Jenkins (1993) and Lundie-Jenkins et al. (1993a, b) have described the ecology of the Mala in detail. DNA metabarcoding of rufous hare-wallaby scat from Bernier, Dorre and Dirk Hartog Islands found that the species has broad diet that includes grasses, forbs and shrubs (R. Stover unpublished data).

Attempts to reintroduce L. hirsutus to parts of the Tanami Desert (Gibson et al. 1994) and to François Peron National Park, Shark Bay (Hardman et al. 2016), failed due to predation by feral Cats, even where foxes were locally eradicated or naturally absent.

On the mainland, predation by introduced feral Cat and Red Fox was the major cause of extinction in the wild, exacerbated by changed fire regimes (from patchy to more extensive and severe fires). All existing subpopulations now occur at sites at which foxes and cats are absent or have been eradicated, but predation by these species prevents further recovery on the mainland beyond fenced sites. Trends for decreasing rainfall are likely to affect population viability at some sites.

The most recent recovery plan (Richards 2012) was adopted in June 2012. It has eight actions:

·         Protect and monitor the Shark Bay islands populations and their habitat

·         Maintain captive populations

·         Maintain and monitor the Trimouille Island population

·         Reintroduction to mainland and island sites

·         Repeat population viability analysis (PVA)

·         Resolve the taxonomy genetically

·        Improve community participation and education

·        Coordinate the recovery program

Current management

The last two known central Australian subpopulations of the unnamed 'central Australian' subspecies became extinct in the wild in 1987 and 1991 (Johnson and Burbidge 2023); however, a captive colony was established from these subpopulations at Alice Springs, saving the subspecies from extinction (Johnson et al. 1996). Animals from this captive colony were established in a 1 km²-fenced site at the ‘mala paddock’ near Lake Surprise in the Tanami Desert. Later, when this site was closed because of its remoteness and high cost of maintenance, the subpopulation was used to establish other captive and mainland island colonies (Woinarski et al. 2007). An extensive search for hare-wallabies and other threatened desert mammals along salt lake chains in the Great Sandy Desert in 1988 failed to locate any Hare-wallabies (Burbidge and Pearson 1989). In 1998 there was a translocation of captive animals from the ‘mala paddock’ to Trimouille Island (5 km²) in the Montebello Islands off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia (Langford and Burbidge 2001); this subpopulation is thriving and has supported a translocation to a fenced enclosure at Lorna Glen (now Matuwa Kurrara-Kurrara National Park) (DEC 2012). In 2001, five Mala (4 females, 1 male) were reintroduced to a 100-ha fenced enclosure at Scotia in New South Wales from Alice Springs Desert Park, plus an additional male from Monarto Zoo. Nineteen (19: 5 males/14 female) supplemented this population in 2004 from the Desert Park and a further seven mala were transferred from Monarto Zoo in July 2008. These subpopulations were translocated to Newhaven Sanctuary (NT) between 2017 and 2020.

The Shark Bay subspecies had not been previously translocated from the natural populations on Bernier and Dorre Islands until 2017 when a trial translocation to Dirk Hartog Island (WA) took place. This was followed by reinforcements in 2018 and 2019 (Cowen and Sims 2021).

Conservation objectives

1.       Maintain island populations

2.       Maintain and enhance mainland island subpopulations

3.        Identify future translocation sites 

All three subspecies are listed as threatened under Australian environmental law.