The Mareeba rock-wallaby (''Petrogale mareeba'') is a rare species of

rock-wallaby 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 ''Kan ...

found around

Mareeba Mareeba is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Mareeba in Far North Queensland, Australia. Between 2008 and 2013, it was within the Tablelands Region. The town's name is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ''meeting of the waters'' ...

in northeastern

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 , established_ ...

, Australia.

Taxonomy

The Mareeba rock-wallaby is a member of a group of seven very closely related species within 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 ...

'', which also includes the

Cape York rock-wallaby The Cape York rock-wallaby (''Petrogale coenensis'') is a species of rock-wallaby restricted to Cape York Peninsula in northeastern Queensland, Australia. It is a member of a group of seven very closely related rock-wallabies, all found in northe ...

(''P. coenensis''), the

unadorned rock-wallaby The unadorned rock-wallaby (''Petrogale inornata'') is a member of a group of closely related rock-wallabies found in northeastern Queensland, Australia. It is paler than most of its relatives and even plainer, hence its common name. The unador ...

(''P. inornata'') and the

allied rock-wallaby The allied rock-wallaby or Weasel rock-wallaby (''Petrogale assimilis'') is a species of rock-wallaby found in northeastern Queensland, Australia. It forms part of the ''P. lateralis/penicillata'' species complex and is very similar to six other ...

(''P. assimilis''). It was only identified as a separate species in 1992. Both the common name and the Latin specific epithet reflect the distribution of this species around the settlement of Mareeba.

Distribution and habitat

The Mareeba rock-wallaby is a rare species, found in the highlands west of

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

from around

Mount Garnet Mount Garnet is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Mount Garnet had a population of 430 people. Geography Various small communities populate the area around Mount Garnet. These include Tableland ...

to the Mitchell River and Mount Carbine, and inland to

Mungana Mungana is part of the rural locality of Chillagoe, north Queensland, Australia and a former mining township in its own right. It is within the local government area of Shire of Mareeba (between 2008 and 2013, it was within the Tablelands Regio ...

, but only on the tops of a couple of mountain ranges. The animals can be seen in their natural habitat in the Granite Gorge Nature Park, about inland from Cairns.

Conservation

Classification

Although rare, and a

near-threatened species A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

under

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

classification, the animal is classed as one of "Least concern" under Queenland's ''

Nature Conservation Act 1992 The ''Nature Conservation Act 1992'' is an act of the Parliament of Queensland, Australia, that, together with subordinate legislation, provides for the legislative protection of Queensland's threatened biota. As originally published, it prov ...

''.

Survival after bushfires

After a huge fire raged through the

Yourka Reserve Yourka Reserve is a 43,500–hectare nature reserve in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is a former cattle station in the Einasleigh Uplands bioregion on the western edge of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site, 130 km south of ...

near Einasleigh, run by

Bush Heritage Australia Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, that operates throughout Australia. It was previously known as the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, which is still its legal name. It's vision is: Heal ...

in December 2019, part of the 2019–2020 bushfires in Australia, it was feared that the rock-wallaby population might not survive. However, it was found that the population was thriving, with several new joeys spotted in their mothers' pouches, using motion-sensing cameras. Reserve manager Paul Hales said that they had been conducting

cool burn Fire-stick farming, also known as cultural burning and cool burning, is the practice of Aboriginal Australians regularly using fire to burn vegetation, which has been practised for thousands of years. There are a number of purposes for doing this ...

s for years to reduce dense tree foliage, which had prevented the growth of native grasses such as

cockatoo grass ''Alloteropsis semialata'', known commonly as black seed grass, cockatoo grass, ''donkersaad gras'', ''swartsaadgras'', ''tweevingergras'', and ''isi quinti'', is a perennial grass distributed across much of tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia ...

and

kangaroo grass } ''Themeda triandra'' is a species of perennial tussock-forming grass widespread in Africa, Australia, Asia and the Pacific. In Australia it is commonly known as kangaroo grass and in East Africa and South Africa it is known as red grass and re ...

. Still, the December fire had helped to thin out the trees even more, "with daylight reaching the ground for the first time in 25 years". The renewed growth would help to support the survival of the ground-dwelling native animals.

Taxonomy

Distribution and habitat

Conservation

Classification

Survival after bushfires

References

Further reading