wallaby

Ancient aboriginal rock painting of a wallaby in Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia.

A wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod (Family Macropodidae). It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name.

Very small forest-dwelling wallabies are known as pademelons (genus Thylogale) and dorcopsises (genera Dorcopsis and Dorcopsulus). The name wallaby comes from the Eora Aboriginal tribe who were the original inhabitants of the Sydney area. Young wallabies are known as "joeys", like many other marsupials.

Range and habitat

Wallabies are widely distributed across Australia, particularly in more remote, heavily timbered, or rugged areas, less so on the great semi-arid plains that are better suited to the larger, leaner, and more fleet-footed kangaroos. They were introduced in New Zealand, where they are seen as a pest and are often hunted. There are also a few populations of wallabies in the British Isles, the largest of which can be found on the Isle of Man where there is a breeding colony of around 100. Recently Wallabies have also been found on the Island of Oahu.^[1]

Classification

Wallabies are not a distinct biological group. Nevertheless they fall into several broad categories. Typical wallabies of the Macropus genus, like the Agile Wallaby (Macropus agilis), and the Red-necked Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) are most closely related to the kangaroos and wallaroos and, size aside, look very similar. These are the ones most frequently seen, particularly in the southern states.

Red-necked Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) joey in pouch

Rock-wallabies (genus Petrogale), rather like the goats of the northern hemisphere, specialise in rugged terrain and have modified feet designed to grip rock with skin friction rather than dig into soil with large claws. There are at least fifteen species and the relationship between several of them is poorly understood. Several are endangered. Captive rock wallaby breeding programs like the one at Healesville Sanctuary have had some success and a small number have recently been released into the wild.

The Banded Hare-wallaby (Lagostrophus fasciatus) is thought to be the last remaining member of the once-numerous subfamily Sthenurinae, and although once common across southern Australia, is now restricted to two islands off the Western Australian coast which are free of introduced predators. It is not as closely related to the other hare wallabies (genus Lagorchestes) as the hare wallabies are to the other wallabies.

New Guinea, which was until fairly recent geological times part of mainland Australia^{[citation needed]}, has at least five species of wallaby.

Feral populations

Wallabies are an introduced species in New Zealand, where they are considered a pest. A program to reintroduce them to Australia has met with limited success.[1]

There is a large feral population of over 100 in the Isle of Man in the Ballaugh Curraghs area, having bred originally from a pair that escaped from the nearby Curraghs Wildlife Park some years ago.

Additionally, a small feral population of wallabies is known to exist in Hawai'i, in the upper regions of Kalihi Valley of the island of Oahu.[2] This colony arose from an escape of zoo specimens of Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby (Petrogale penicillata) in 1916.

A number of wallaby breeding colonies in other parts of the world have been established at times in the past, but only one proved viable. The two principal populations were those of the island of Inchconnachan in Loch Lomond, Scotland and in the Peak District of England. The Peak District population was established in around 1940^{[citation needed]} by five escapees from a local zoo, and as of late March 2009 sightings were still being made in the area [3]. At its peak in 1975 the population numbered around sixty individuals. The Loch Lomond population was deliberately established in the 1920s and unmanaged, has achieved a viable population of around 28.^{[citation needed]} Restricted to the island of Inchconnachan there are occasional escapes to the mainland when the loch freezes over. Other populations in the United Kingdom that for some periods bred successfully included one near Teignmouth, Devon, another in the Ashdown Forest, East Sussex and one on the island of Bute and Lundy.

There is also a small population on Lambay Island off the east coast of Ireland. This group was introduced by Dublin Zoo after a sudden population explosion in the mid 1980s^{[citation needed]}

Species

Mother wallaby with joey in the Tasmanian summer rain.

The Swamp Wallaby is the only living representative of the genus Wallabia. This individual exhibits the species' unusual preference for browsing; note the use of the forelimbs to grasp the plant

An Agile Wallaby

Three wallabies (one grey with joey in pouch, and one white) in captivity in England.

As mentioned above, the term wallaby is ill-defined and can mean just about any macropod of moderate size. In consequence, the listing below is arbitrary and taken from the complete list of macropods.

• Agile Wallaby, Macropus agilis
• Allied Rock-wallaby, Petrogale assimilis
• Banded Hare-wallaby, Lagostrophus fasciatus
• Black Dorcopsis, Dorcopsis atrata
• Black-flanked Rock-wallaby, Petrogale lateralis
• Black-striped Wallaby, Macropus dorsalis
• Bridled Nail-tail Wallaby, Onychogalea fraenata
• Brown Dorcopsis, Dorcopsis muelleri
• Brown's Pademelon, Thylogale browni
• Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, Petrogale penicillata
• Calaby's Pademelon, Thylogale calabyi
• Cape York Rock-wallaby, Petrogale coenensis
• Crescent Nail-tail Wallaby, Onychogalea lunata (extinct)
• Dusky Pademelon, Thylogale brunii
• Eastern Hare-wallaby, Lagorchestes leporides
• Godman's Rock-wallaby, Petrogale godmani
• Gray Dorcopsis, Dorcopsis luctuosa
• Herbert's Rock-wallaby, Petrogale herberti
• Lake Mackay Hare-wallaby, Lagorchestes asomatus
• Macleay's Dorcopsis, Dorcopsulus macleayi
• Mareeba Rock-wallaby, Petrogale mareeba
• Monjon, Petrogale burbidgei
• Mt. Claro Rock-wallaby, Petrogale sharmani
• Mountain Pademelon, Thylogale lanatus
• Nabarlek, Petrogale concinna
• Northern Nail-tail Wallaby, Onychogalea unguifera
• Parma Wallaby: Macropus parma (rediscovered, thought extinct for 100 years)
• Pretty-faced Wallaby: Macropus parryi
• Proserpine Rock-wallaby, Petrogale persephone
• Purple-necked Rock-wallaby, Petrogale purpureicollis
• Red-legged Pademelon, Thylogale stigmatica
• Red-necked Pademelon, Thylogale thetis
• Red-necked Wallaby: Macropus rufogriseus
• Rothschild's Rock-wallaby, Petrogale rothschildi
• Rufous Hare-wallaby, Lagorchestes hirsutus
• Short-eared Rock-wallaby, Petrogale brachyotis
• Swamp Wallaby or Black Wallaby, Wallabia bicolor
• Tammar Wallaby, Macropus eugenii
• Tasmanian Pademelon, Thylogale billardierii
• Toolache Wallaby, Macropus greyii (extinct)
• Unadorned Rock-wallaby, Petrogale inornata
• Western Brush Wallaby, Macropus irma
• White-striped Dorcopsis, Dorcopsis hageni
• Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby, Petrogale xanthopus

Fictional wallabies

• Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life,
• Wallaby, or "Warabi", a stuffed Wallaby doll from the Kiyohiko Azuma manga of the same name.

References

External links

• Roophilia - photographs of kangaroos and wallabies
• Wallabies Are The New Lawn Mowers (VIDEO) by The Huffington Post