page_title: Tammar wallaby
section_title: Population dynamics and conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Tammar wallaby / Population dynamics and conservation
caption_attribution_description: Macropus eugenii (orig. Halmaturus derbianus)
context_page_description: The tammar wallaby, also known as the dama wallaby or darma wallaby, is a small macropod native to South and Western Australia. Though its geographical range has been severely reduced since European colonization, the tammar remains common within its reduced range and is listed as "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It has been introduced to New Zealand and reintroduced to some areas of Australia where it had been previously eradicated. Skull differences distinguish tammars from Western Australia, Kangaroo Island, and mainland South Australia, making them distinct population groups or possibly different subspecies.
  The tammar is among the smallest of the wallabies in the genus Macropus. Its coat color is largely grey. The tammar has several notable adaptations, including the ability to retain energy while hopping, color vision, and the ability to drink seawater. A nocturnal species, it spends nighttime in grassland habitat and daytime in shrubland. It is also very gregarious and has a seasonal, promiscuous mating pattern. A female tammar can nurse a joey in her pouch while keeping an embryo in her uterus.
context_section_description: The tammar wallaby is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, because of its abundance and presumably stable population. However, the fragmentation of its range has led to high amounts of inbreeding and morphological abnormalities in some populations.
  Since European occupation, tammar wallaby populations on both mainland Australia and some of the islands have been greatly reduced or even eradicated. In the early 20th century, the mainland population of tammars in Western Australia was described as numerous in much of the southwest, but declining in the cultivated areas, particularly to the north. Clearings made for wheat and sheep caused the population to decline further. From the 19th century, tammars in the Eyre Peninsula and around Adelaide were decimated by mobs of hunters organised to protect crops and pastures. As a result, they were extinct in the areas around Adelaide by the 1920s, and in the Eyre Peninsula around the 1970s. Tammars from Flinders Island and St Peter Island were eradicated in a similar manner. 
  Tammars from these areas were introduced to Kawau Island in New Zealand by colonial administrator Sir George Grey in 1870. They were introduced to the Rotorua area in the early 20th century. Since then, they have flourished to the point where their foraging has damaged indigenous plants. Pest control operators have used sodium fluoroacetate, a naturally occurring rodenticide, to control their populations, a practice which has been controversial because of its possible effect on organisms not targeted, including humans. Cyanide pellets have been used as an alternative. In 1985, tammars were introduced to the North Island of the Houtman Abrolhos and have made similar impacts on native vegetation. Their numbers grew to 450 individuals, but by 2008 culling efforts appeared to have reduced their numbers to 25 individuals. In 2003, the Monarto Zoo temporarily housed 85 tammars from New Zealand awaiting reintroduction to the Innes National Park on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. Four releases have been made, and a stable wild population of 100–120 animals exists as of 2012. Tammars have also been successfully translocated to other areas, such as Nambung National Park and Avon Valley National Park in Western Australia.
caption: A drawing of two tammar wallabies by John Gould (1863)
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