Miro doesn't know it yet, but his life is about to change.
The one-year-old Numbat has lived at Perth Zoo since birth under the watchful eyes of keepers, who have had to met his challenging diet requirement of 20,000 termites a day.
Very few people have seen a numbat other than on Western Australia's animal emblem or in photos, and with good reason.
The small marsupial is well camouflaged, fast and endangered.
There are less than 1000 numbats left in the wild as the species is threatened by loss of habitat and predators including foxes and cats.
But for the first time since the world's only numbat recovery program started in 1987, a group of numbats will be released into Dryandra Woodlands where the original breeding stock was captured.
On Friday, Miro and 13 other numbats will make the state's western Wheatbelt their new home and take with them a radio tracking collar and the promise of boosting the population.
Department of Parks and Wildlife researcher Tony Friend said once the numbats had established their home range, which can be up to 50ha, they'll stay there for the rest of their lives.
Dr Friend said numbats were solitary and sensible creatures, taking siestas at midday and staying out of each others way until breeding season.
"They live their own lives until the hormones kick in, which happens once a year, then they can't get enough of each other," Dr Friend said.
Numbat keeper Vicki Power said people have flown to Perth just to see the elusive creature, which is one of Australia's truly diurnal marsupials, meaning it's only active during the day.
"It amazes me that they persist as a species when you think about how small and vulnerable they really are," Ms Power said.
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