There are early signs that two small species of hare wallaby once widespread but now surviving in just two tiny populations off the WA coast can bounce back.

Rufous and banded hare wallabies are slightly smaller than quokkas and were dubbed hare wallabies by early European scientists due to their rabbit-like ears.

"They are marsupials and they were relatively widespread on the mainland 200 years ago," Keith Morris, senior principal research scientist at the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), said.

"Over time their range has contracted due to predation by introduced cats and foxes but also land clearing."

Their home is the tiny Bernier and Dorre islands, 50 kilometres off the coast of Carnarvon.

There they are fairly protected from introduced predators but their numbers are still low.

Keith Morris releasing a hare wallaby on Dirk Hartog Island ( Supplied: Claudia Buters, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions )

Mr Morris and his DBCA team hope to build the population by introducing them to the much larger Dirk Hartog Island.

"One of our roles is to try and improve the conservation status of some of these animals that have nearly dropped off the planet and only exist on a couple of small islands," he said.

"The Dirk Hartog Fauna Reconstruction Project offers an opportunity to put several species back onto a large island, and to get really large populations of these rare and threatened mammals that we have nearly lost in Australia."

Dirk Hartog Island, 850 kilometres north of Perth, was a pastoral station until 2009.

It then became a national park and work began to remove feral goats and cats from the island.

The 620-square-kilometre island is now the location of the largest fauna reconstruction project in Australia.

"This is the largest island in the world to have had feral cats removed," Mr Morris said.

"The fauna reconstruction project runs from 2018 to 2030, and it's going to translocate 12 species of mammal and one species of bird.

"It's probably the biggest fauna reconstruction project in Australia, if not in the world."

In 2016, Belgian shepherds were used to search for feral cats on Dirk Hartog Island. ( Supplied: WA Parks and Wildlife )

While remote, Dirk Hartog Island is open to visitors who want to fish and take excursions into the national park.

"That is another advantage of what we are doing for tourism in the Shark Bay area," Mr Morris said.

"Dirk Hartog will become known as a spot where you can go and see species that people would never see anywhere else in Australia."

But it's unlikely that tourists will be snapping selfies with an adorable hare wallaby any time soon.

"They are pretty much nocturnal like most of our native mammals," Mr Morris said.

"That is one of the drawbacks when promoting our native animals, is the fact that you really have to be out at night to see them."

It's hoped the clear blue waters and opportunities to see rare native animals will boost eco-tourism on Dirk Hartog Island. ( Chris Lewis, ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt )

Late last year 12 rufous hare wallabies and 12 banded hare wallabies were released on Dirk Hartog — and the early signs are that they're doing well.

Mr Morris's team is planning to return to check on their progress sometime in April.

"We already have evidence that they are breeding on Dirk Hartog," Mr Morris said.

Two hare wallabies are released on Dirk Hartog Island. ( Supplied: Richard Manning, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions )

"Even before we finished our intensive monitoring in November last year, I think we had five animals with pouch young. Since then there will have been more born on Dirk Hartog.

"That's pretty good, to get recruitment into the population with such a low number of founders.