The brush-tailed rock-wallaby or small-eared rock-wallaby (''Petrogale penicillata'') is a kind of
wallaby
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...
, one of several
rock-wallabies in the genus ''
Petrogale
The rock-wallabies are the wallabies of the genus ''Petrogale''.
Taxonomy
The genus was established in 1837 by John Edward Gray in a revision of material at the British Museum of Natural History. Gray nominated his earlier description of ''Ka ...
''. It inhabits rock piles and cliff lines along the
Great Dividing Range from about 100 km north-west of
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
to northern
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
, in vegetation ranging from
rainforest to
dry sclerophyl forests. Populations have declined seriously in the south and west of its range, but it remains locally common in northern
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
and southern
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
. However, due to a large bushfire event in South-East Australia around 70% of all the wallaby's habitat has been lost as of January 2020.
In 2018, the southern brush-tailed rock wallaby was declared as the official mammal emblem of the
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...
(ACT), although it has not been seen in the wild in the ACT since 1959.
Taxonomy
''Petrogale penicillata'' was first described by
John Edward Gray
John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...
in 1827.
The taxon has been named for a species complex, the ''Petrogale penicillata-lateralis'' group, the systematics of which continued to be resolved.
Description
A species of ''
Petrogale
The rock-wallabies are the wallabies of the genus ''Petrogale''.
Taxonomy
The genus was established in 1837 by John Edward Gray in a revision of material at the British Museum of Natural History. Gray nominated his earlier description of ''Ka ...
'', rock wallabies have a dense and shaggy pelage that is rufous or grey brown.
The tail is 500 to 700 millimetres long, exceeding the 510 to 580 mm combined length of the head and body.
The colour of the tail is brown or black, the fur becoming bushy towards its shaggy, brush-like end.
The weight range is from 5 to 8 kilograms.
The upper parts of this wallaby's pelage is either entirely rufous-brown, or a grey brown over the back and shoulders with brown fur at the thigh and rump.
The paler under parts may feature a white blazon on the chest. Very dark fur covers the lower parts of the limbs, paws and feet, and on the sides beneath the fore limbs of the animal; a whitish stripe may appear along the side of the body.
The coloration of the species in the northern parts of population is paler and fur is shorter in length.
The black-footed and flanked species ''Petrogale lateralis'', which occurs in central Australia, is distinguished by its larger size and the shorter and darker fur of the tail and hind parts.
Herbert's rock-wallaby (''
P. herberti'') overlaps in the northern range of this species, their coloration is greyer than the warm brown of this species and lighter at the darker features of the limbs; the tail of that species also lacks the blackish features and bushy end.
The pads of the feet are well developed and their coarse texture allows good traction on rock surfaces.
Behaviour
The species is able to negotiate difficult rocky terrain with great agility, their compact yet powerful build is assisted by counter-balancing the long tail and feet suited to holding the animal at precarious edges and on inclined surfaces.
The species favours north facing refuges, and while largely nocturnal in venturing out from shelter they will bask in winter sun for short periods.
Procreation is founded on breeding females utilising a single male for insemination, with births that occur throughout the year. Groups in cooler latitudes or higher altitudes may tend to reproduce in a period between February to May. The females of the colony cohere as maternal groups, with male progeny moving to other groups within the colony or migrating to another location.
Individual foraging territories for the species are around 15 hectares, perhaps more for males.
Distribution and habitat
![Petrogale penicillata - Gould](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Petrogale_penicillata_-_Gould.jpg)
Found along the
Great Dividing Range in fragmented populations that remain after its historical contraction in range from the east and south. The southern edge of the range is the
Grampians
The Grampian Mountains (''Am Monadh'' in Gaelic) is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian rang ...
, and no further west than the
Warrumbungles
The Warrumbungles is a mountain range in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The nearest town is Coonabarabran. The area is easiest accessed from the Newell Highway which is the major road link directly between Melbourne, Victoria ...
range in New South Wales. The northernmost groups have remained less affected by ecological changes, these are found in southeast Queensland.
''Petrogale penicillata'' shelters during the day in rocky habitat, within vegetation or cavities of preferably complex terrain that allows them to find cooler temperatures and to elude or remain inaccessible to predators. Their great agility while hopping and climbing provides opportunities at ledges, cliff-faces, overhangs, caves and crevices.
Introduced populations
![Petrogale penicillata with radio tracking collar - journal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Petrogale_penicillata_with_radio_tracking_collar_-_journal.pone.0063017.g001A.png)
As part of the
acclimatisation
Acclimatization or acclimatisation ( also called acclimation or acclimatation) is the process in which an individual organism adjusts to a change in its environment (such as a change in altitude, temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH), a ...
movement of the late 1800s,
governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Grey
Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...
introduced this and four other species of wallabies (including the rare
parma wallaby
The parma wallaby (''Notamacropus parma'') is a small, hopping, kangaroo-like mammal native to forests of southeastern Australia. About the size of a stout cat, it lives in dense shrub and is only active at night to feed on grasses and small plan ...
) to islands in
Hauraki Gulf
The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,[Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...](_blank)
, New Zealand, where they became well-established. In modern times, these populations have come to be viewed as
exotic
Exotic may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Exotic R4, a differentiable 4-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the Euclidean space R4
* Exotic sphere, a differentiable ''n''-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the ordina ...
pests
PESTS was an anonymous American activist group formed in 1986 to critique racism, tokenism, and exclusion in the art world. PESTS produced newsletters, posters, and other print material highlighting examples of discrimination in gallery represent ...
, with severe impacts on the indigenous flora and fauna. As a result, eradication is being undertaken, after initial protection for review of their Australian populations and the return of some wallabies to Australia. Between 1967 and 1975, 210 rock-wallabies were captured on
Kawau Island
Kawau Island is in the Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana, close to the north-eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. At its closest point it lies off the coast of the Northland Peninsula, just south of Tāwharanui Peninsula, and about ...
and returned to Australia, along with thousands of other wallabies. Rock-wallabies were removed from
Rangitoto
Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The wide island is a symmetrical shield volcano cone, reaching a height of . Rangitoto is the youngest and largest of the approximately 50 volcanoes of the ...
and
Motutapu Island
Motutapu Island (otherwise known as ''Motutapu'') is a island in the Hauraki Gulf to the northeast of the city of Auckland, New Zealand. The island is part of the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park. Its full name, rarely used, is ''Te Motutapu a Taikeh ...
s during the 1990s, and eradication is now underway on Kawau. Another thirty-three rock-wallabies were captured on Kawau during the 2000s, and returned to Australia, before eradication began.
In 2003 some Kawau brush-tails were relocated to the Waterfall Springs Conservation Park north of
Sydney, New South Wales, for captive breeding purposes.
Due to an escape of a pair in 1916, a small breeding population of the brush-tailed rock-wallabies also exists in the
Kalihi Valley on the island of
Oahu
Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O ...
in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...
.
Attempts at reintroduction into the
Grampians National Park
The Grampians National Park commonly referred to as The Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd.
The national park is situated betw ...
during 2008-12 were not successful, largely due to
fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
predation. Nevertheless, March 2017 saw the emergence of a fourth offspring, bringing the total number of rock–wallabies present within the Grampians National Park to eight.
Conservation
The Brush-tailed rock wallaby was once common throughout South-East Australia, but due to clearing of native habitat, exotic plant introduction, predation by introduced species and changing fire patterns as a result of climate change they have been wiped out from much of their Southern and Western ranges.
In late 2019 fierce bushfires swept through New South Wales and Victoria, burning protected areas inhabited by the wallaby. It is estimated that 70% of all brush-tailed rock-wallaby habitat was destroyed. In the aftermath of the fires in Victoria, where the wallaby was thought to have been hunted to extinction by the early 20th century by settlers who prized its fur and skin, until some who had survived were discovered in the Grampians in 1970,
[Benjamin Wilkie,]
''Gariwerd: An Ecological History of the Grampians,''
Csiro Publishing 2020 pp.73-74. a colony of 13 has been detected in the
Grampians National Park
The Grampians National Park commonly referred to as The Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd.
The national park is situated betw ...
while a further 50 are known to exist in the
Snowy River National Park
The Snowy River National Park is a national park located in the alpine and East Gippsland regions of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated approximately northeast of Melbourne and southwest of Canberra, south of the Black-Allan ...
.
[Miki Perkins]
'Incredibly exciting': These marsupials are endangered. Now, there's new life and hope
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...
20 October 2020.
References
External links
Brush-tailed rock-wallaby recovery in NSW (Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife)*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090914012229/http://www.fnpw.org.au/enews054/BTRWNews.htm Brush-tailed rock-wallaby habitat modellingbr>
BBC video of brush-tailed rock-wallabies in actionThe Aussie Brush-Tailed Rock-Wallaby Ark Conservation Project
{{Taxonbar, from=Q209582
Macropods
Vulnerable fauna of Australia
Mammals of New South Wales
Mammals of Queensland
Mammals of Victoria (Australia)
Marsupials of Australia
Mammals described in 1827
Taxa named by John Edward Gray