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Summary The rare status of P. tapoatafa in the wild makes it an important species for captive management. It can be maintained easily and bred in captivity if the correct techniques are applied. Due to its unusual life history strategy, the species needs to be consistently bred each year if a captive population is to be maintained. Two different techniques, monogamous pairs and round robin, have been applied at Healesville Sanctuary with a 100% breeding success rate. It is difficult to assess which technique is most appropriate as each has been attempted with relatively few ♀♀ in a single breeding season. In both cases, it is thought that an important aspect of the breeding protocol has been that animals are paired just prior to the breeding season and not earlier. Phascogale tapoatafa are easily maintained. The major components of the diet are insects, meat mix, cheese and Lead‐beater's mix, all of which are offered throughout the year. Animals typically maintain their weight on this diet, though on occasion ♀♀lose condition during the breeding season. Large groups of animals (up to eight) have been maintained together outside of the breeding season. If necessary, hand‐rearing techniques can be applied to animals that have been orphaned and fostering of young animals is also an option depending on age.

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Black-flanked rock-wallabies (Petrogale lateralis lateralis) were thought to be locally extinct in Kalbarri National Park, Western Australia, until 2015 when a pair were photographed in the Murchison River gorge. Subsequent searches failed to locate any other populations and, in combination with previous surveys, suggest that these animals were the sole survivors of a formerly abundant population. Efforts to capture the rock-wallabies to obtain tissue samples and ascertain their genetic affinities were unsuccessful. However, fresh faecal material was collected and a ~600-bp fragment of DNA sequence data was obtained from a mitochondrial DNA gene. The Kalbarri rock-wallabies were found to be genetically distinct from all other sampled populations of P. l. lateralis. They were genetically most similar to rock-wallabies in the Calvert Range, 950km to the north-east in the Little Sandy Desert. Nearer populations in Cape Range (600km north) and the Western Australian Wheatbelt (500km south-east) were less closely related. Following evaluation of a variety of factors, including population size, genetics, demography, ecology, environment and logistics, a decision was made to supplement the Kalbarri National Park population with females sourced from the Western Australian Wheatbelt. In May 2016 three females were released at the same site as the Kalbarri pair to try to ensure the survival of the population whilst still preserving unique Kalbarri alleles.