Auswildlife.com

In managing the website, I keep an eye on the various search terms that people use when visiting, and one of the most popular is ‘kangaroo’.  It’s not unexpected, but what I did think was interesting, was that many people seem to think there is just one species of kangaroo! In fact we have many. So here is a very brief wildlife photographic journey through just a few of the species that we have. Sorry, I don’t have photos of them all…yet.

Firstly, apart from the species that we normally associate with the name, there are a few smaller marsupials that use the same bipedal hopping gait and belong to the same ‘Superfamily’ (Macropodoidea).  Here is an example of one, the Northern Bettong (Bettongia tropica).  There are ten species of Bettongs and Potoroos, two of which are now extinct and most others are highly threatened. The species photographed is listed as Endangered under our Federal legislation.

Having got them out of the way, we can now move on to the animals that look more like real kangaroos.  Mind you, there are a few groups that I am glossing over here. For example the Tree Kangaroos, that don’t really act like real kangaroos, and the Hare-Wallabies because I don’t have any pictures of them.  So if we move on from those liitle omissions (!!) we get to the true kangaroos and wallabies.

Some examples of wallabies – which are just small kangaroos (Most of them in the same Genus, Macropus)

Agile Wallabies (Macropus agilis) as featured in the article about Cape Hillsborough, Queensland. A wallaby of the northern tropical savannahs.

Red-necked Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus). Locally common in parts of south eastern Australia.

Northern Nailtail Wallaby (Onychogalea unguifera).  A wallaby of the northern tropical woodlands. It has two other close relatives that once occurred in more southerly locales. One of these is now extinct and the other is exceedlingly rare.  All have a curious little nail-like projection at the tip of the tail which gives them their common name.

The Rock Wallabies are another separate genus (Petrogale) and there are quite a few species recognised, many of which look almost exactly the same! The Mareeba Rock Wallaby is a good example.

Lets have a closer look at a joey…..

The Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby (Petrogale penicillata) of south-eastern Australia.

There are also a couple of species of Pademelons (Thylogale) which are denizens of wet forests and dense undergrowth. This is a Red-legged Pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica) (below)

The Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) has a genus all to itself.  A very common animal along the east Australian coast and also venturing inland into semi-arid areas. I have put two images of this wallaby in here.

Then we can move to the larger macropods – the Euro (Macropus robustus), found over much of the Australian mainland. Along the Great Dividing Range on the east coast, Euros take on a very different appearance. The males are large, powerfully built and stooped, while the females are small, pale grey with white markings and look like an entirely different species. These east coast animals are usually called Wallaroos.  The picture below is of an arid zone Euro in Western Australia.

The Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) is, as it’s name suggests, quite large. Males can weigh up to 85kg, but this the exception rather than the rule.  This species is widespread in eastern Australia and the changes that white settlement has bought about, have greatly advantaged this species, so that numbers are now well in excess of that which originally occurred. Over the past 200 years or more, we have a) cleared forests and created more grasslands, b) created more water points and c) managed to kill off the kangaroo’s main predator, the Dingo. It’s no wonder that their population has exploded.  Although sometimes portrayed as a threatened species and in need of conservation, the reality is that there are many other Australian species that are in far more serious predicaments than these animals.  Nevertheless, they still make nice photographic subjects….

And then we can move to the Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus).  Only the males tend to be red. Females are usually a blue-grey colour (although not always).  Males can weigh up to 92kg although once again, this is more an exception rather than the rule.  It is an animal of the open arid plains.  I have included a picture of a male and also a two females.

…and that concludes the auswildlife kangaroo odyssey. Cheers, Bruce