One of a handful goannas known to live in the ACT’s hill reserves has run away from its home \u2014 and a local conservation organisation is asking for help bringing him back.<\/p>\n
It’s the second time in as many years Rum the Rosenberg’s goanna has absconded from his home on the Ainslie-Majura Reserve in Canberra.<\/p>\n
The National Parks Association of the ACT (NPA ACT) said Rum was one of just six or seven Rosenberg’s goannas living in the area, and described him as a “repeat offender” who “ignores all advice” not to explore the suburbs near his home.<\/p>\n
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The National Parks Association of the ACT posted a wanted sign asking locals to keep an eye out for Rum. (Supplied: NPA ACT)<\/p>\n
NPA ACT Ecologist Don Fletcher said the first time Rum went missing from the nature reserve where he lives, he was found in a backyard on Limestone Avenue.<\/p>\n
“He actually moved along the street from backyard to backyard \u2026 one of which he actually went up to the window [and tapped on it],” Dr Fletcher said.<\/p>\n
“Eventually he went on to other houses. I got a phone call and went there, captured him, and took him back up to Mount Ainslie.<\/p>\n
“So that was 2024 \u2014 and now he turns up in the suburbs, the idiot thing. I wish he’d take the advice and stay in the reserve.”<\/p>\n
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Rum was last spotted in Ainslie by a member of the public on Thursday, November 27. (Supplied: NatureMapr)<\/p>\n
Dr Fletcher said when the organisation first came across Rum, in 2022, he had recently been badly hurt in a presumed fox attack.<\/p>\n
“He had these big parallel scars \u2014 like two incisor teeth \u2014 on his neck, and he was pretty moribund,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He couldn’t run away from us [and] the end of his tail was chewed off.”<\/p>\n
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Rum the Rosenberg’s goanna has two deep scars on his neck from a presumed fox attack in 2022, right before the NPA first found him. (Supplied: Don Fletcher)<\/p>\n
‘There’s a lot going on behind that stony stare’<\/p>\n
Found only in southern Australia, Rosenberg’s goannas face declining populations due to habitat loss and predation, and are listed as vulnerable in both NSW and Victoria.<\/p>\n
Rum is one of the Rosenberg’s goannas being studied in the NPA Goanna Project as it looks to protect the species through things like genetic sequencing of potential sub-species and population movement tracking.<\/p>\n