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# Uluru's mala are back to nearly 500, and a robot dog walks the fence
- URL: https://www.earthtoseanews.com/uluru-mala/
- Published: 2026-10-17T03:25:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T03:26:26.000Z
- Description: Mala, the rufous hare wallaby, vanished from the wild in 1991. Twenty four were brought home to Uluru in 2005. This May, Anangu, Mala Rangers and park staff counted them at nearly 500.
- Author: Nicole McMahon
- Tags: Conservation, All stories

Mala stand about thirty centimetres tall, one of the smallest kangaroos there are, and for Anangu, the Traditional Owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, they matter far beyond their size. In 1991 the last wild mala were gone. In 2005, because of their importance to Anangu, twenty four were released into a 170 hectare fenced paddock within the park, with extra food and water, to see whether they would take. Each year since, the count has been a shared job. Over four nights in May this year, Traditional Owners, Mala Rangers, community members and park staff trapped and released 84 individual animals a total of 127 times, and from that worked out a density of 2.86 mala per hectare: about 486 in the paddock, up from two per hectare and 340 the year before. Recent rain has thickened the vegetation, and the surveillance cameras have been catching joeys.

![Uluru rising red above green spinifex and red sand under a blue sky](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/10/uluru-mala-inside.jpg)

Uluru from the red sand. Photo: Unsplash.

Mala are now found in only seven places in the whole country, which is why this one paddock counts for so much. "Traditional Owners, Mala Rangers and other community members are integral in the success of the census," said Lauren Macleod, senior ranger at the park. "With just seven mala populations around the country, it means a lot to everyone involved to see them doing so well here." Parks Australia is trialling gentler ways to count them, thermal drones with software that recognises a mala from the air, and its remote pilots are testing a four legged robot to patrol the fenceline at night. Anangu's say over the park grew in April, when the 99 year lease was rewritten so that Traditional Owners receive half the park's revenue instead of a quarter, with half the park's full time jobs to be held by Anangu by 2030\. Mala, the small animal at the centre of an old story, are doing their bit for the new one.

### Sources and links

Our short take: figures from Parks Australia's Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park news, Uluru's mala population thriving (4 August 2026), and the joint media release on the lease update (April 2026).

- [Uluru's mala population thriving, Parks Australia](https://uluru.gov.au/news/ulurus-mala-population-thriving/) The count, the quotes, the robot dog.
- [Uluru-Kata Tjuta lease update strengthens joint management and doubles revenue for Anangu, joint media release](https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/watt/media-releases/joint-media-release-uluru-kata-tjuta-lease-update-strengthens-joint-management-and-doubles-revenue-anangu) Half the revenue, half the jobs by 2030.