Tammar Wallaby

## Description

The tammar wallaby (Notamacropus eugenii ), 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 colonisation, the tammar wallaby remains common within its reduced range and is listed as "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It has been introduced to New Zealand and reintroduced to some areas of Australia where it had been previously eradicated. Skull variations differentiate between tammar wallabies from Western Australia, Kangaroo Island, and mainland South Australia, making them distinct population groups.

The tammar wallaby is among the smallest of the wallabies in the genus *Notamacropus*. Its coat colour is largely grey. The tammar wallaby has several notable adaptations, including the ability to retain energy while hopping, colour vision, and the ability to drink seawater. A nocturnal species, it spends the nighttime in grassland habitat and the daytime in shrubland. It is also very gregarious and has a seasonal, promiscuous mating pattern. A female tammar wallaby can nurse a joey in her pouch while keeping an embryo in her uterus. The tammar wallaby is a model species for research on marsupials, and on mammals in general. Its genome was sequenced in 2011.

## Appearance

Like its family member the kangaroo, Tammar wallabies are marsupials (pouched mammals) and belong to the family of macropods ("large foot"). Basically, a wallaby is a macropod that is not big enough to be classed as a kangaroo. There is no clear distinction between these animals but in general, wallabies are smaller and stockier than kangaroos. Males have much larger forelimbs, and their claws are wider than those of females. Tammar wallabies have gray to yellow bellies and red legs. As with all marsupials, the female has a pouch in front of her abdomen where she nurses her young.

## Distribution

Tammar wallabies inhabit islands off the western and south Australian coasts. They live in regions of dense vegetation with bushes and low trees, in thickets and at the outskirts of forests.

## Behavior

Tammar wallabies are very social animals. They socialize, mate and feed in groups that have a hierarchical structure. These groups are called "mobs". More dominant individuals are usually males, and this dominance is determined by means of aggressive wrestling encounters, the victor being the highest ranking animal. The territory of a mob may be as large as 100 hectares and the peripheral areas may partly be shared with other mobs. Mobs consist of all ages and both genders and usually number up to 50 individuals. Tammar wallabies are nocturnal, resting during the day in low scrub, beginning to be active at dusk; they leave the scrub after dark and go back to it before dawn.

## Diet

The Tammar wallaby is a herbivore and its diet consists mainly of grass.

## Reproduction

Tammar wallabies are polygynous, the dominant male usually controlling access to his females by first mating with and then guarding the females from other subordinate males. These wallabies are seasonal breeders. The gestation period is for 25 to 28 days. A single joey is born in late January until March. The joey stays in the pouch after birth. At around 200 days it starts to leave the pouch to eat grass. It still suckles, in a more forceful manner but not so often. By 250 days it has left the pouch, and at 300–350 days (or 10 to 11 months) it is fully weaned. A female joey is sexually mature at 9 months old and a male at 2 years old.

## Population

### Population threats

Habitat destruction and feral predators are the major threats to these animals. They are shot for commercial purposes and persecuted as an agricultural pest due to the damage they cause to cereal crops, and because they destroy fences, eat livestock food, and drink stock water.

### Population number

According to IUCN Red List , the overall population of Tammar wallabies is estimated at 10,000-50,000 mature individuals. They are listed as least concern (LC), due to its abundant and presumably stable population.

## Fun Facts for Kids

The wallaby can survive in a dry habitat through drinking sea water if there is no fresh water available.

The adult male is a "buck", "boomer" or "jack", and the adult female is a "doe", "flyer" or "jill".

A group of wallabies can be known as a "troop" or "court".

Tammar wallabies have their name because they were once commonly seen in tamma thickets.

Tammar wallabies were the first "kangaroos" seen by Europeans, namely, the crew of the Batavia, a Dutch ship stranded in the Houtman Abrolhos near the Wallabi Islands off Geraldton, in 1629.

At birth joeys are furless and blind and about as small as a jellybean.

Wallabies are very good swimmers. On land, they are only able to move their back legs together but when they swim they can kick each one independently.