The agile wallaby (''Notamacropus agilis''), also known as the sandy wallaby, is a species 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 ...
found in northern
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
and southern
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
. It is the most common wallaby in north Australia. The agile wallaby is a sandy colour, becoming paler below. It is sometimes solitary and at other times sociable and grazes on grasses and other plants. The agile wallaby is not considered threatened.
Subspecies
The four subspecies of the agile wallaby are:
*''N. a. agilis'', the nominate subspecies, is found in the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
.
*''N. a. jardinii'' is found on the northern and eastern coasts of
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 ...
.
*''N. a. nigrescens'' is found in the
Kimberley and
Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...
regions of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
.
*''N. a. papuanus'' is found in southern and southeastern
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
and some neighbouring islands.
Description
![Agile Wallaby family](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Agile_Wallaby_family.jpg)
Male agile wallabies are considerably larger than females, having a head and body length of up to and weighing while the females grow to in length and weigh . The tails of both genders are long and flexible, giving a total length of double the head and body length. They have relatively large ears, which are edged with black, and the tip of the tail is also black. Their backs are sandy brown while their underparts are whitish. They have a dark stripe between the ears, a pale cheek stripe on each side of the face and another pale streak across the thighs.
Distribution and habitat
![Child holding rescued Agile Wallaby joey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Child_holding_rescued_Agile_Wallaby_joey._Cooktown._2008.jpg)
The agile wallaby is found in northern Australia,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
and the Indonesian province of
Papua. It is the most common wallaby over much of the north of Australia.
In northern Australia and down the eastern coast of Queensland it is quite common, and there are isolated populations in southeastern Queensland around
Coomera
Coomera is a town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Coomera had a population of 13,305 people.
Geography
Located next to the Pacific Motorway (Brisbane–Brunswick Heads), ...
,
Jacobs Well and
Hope Island. It is also present, though not common, on
Stradbroke Island
Stradbroke Island, also known as Minjerribah, was a large sand island that formed much of the eastern side of Moreton Bay near Brisbane, Queensland until the late 19th century. Today the island is split into two islands: North Stradbroke Islan ...
and on Woogoompah Island in the
Southern Moreton Bay Islands
The Southern Moreton Bay Islands, abbreviated as the ''SMBI'', also known as the ''Bay Islands'', or the ''RKLM'', are the four inhabited southern Moreton Bay islands located in South East Queensland, Australia. The group is part of the Redland ...
, and it may still be present on
Peel Island
Peel Island (Indigenous, Janday: ''Teerk Roo Ra'', also and more phonetically spelled 'Jercuruba' or 'Jercroobai' ) is a small heritage-listed island located in Moreton Bay, east of Brisbane, in South East Queensland, Australia. The island i ...
. In Australia its typical habitats are dry open woodland, heaths, dunes and grassland. It is often present in the vicinity of rivers and
billabong
Billabong ( ) is an Australian term for an oxbow lake, an isolated pond left behind after a river changes course. Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end. As a result ...
s. When grass is in short supply, it sometimes browses on shrubs or moves onto agricultural land, including
sugar cane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...
plantations.
[
]
Behaviour
In general, the agile wallaby is a solitary animal, but it sometimes forms into groups when feeding on open pastures, a behaviour that may help with predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
awareness. The agile wallaby feeds mainly at night on grasses, legumes, and other herbaceous plants, but may also forage by day, especially in the wet season. In the dry season, the animal's range grows larger as the quality of the grazing deteriorates, and the diet expands to include flowers, fruit, twigs, fallen leaves, roots, and bark.[ In the dry season in ]Boodjamulla National Park
Boodjamulla National Park, formerly known as Lawn Hill National Park, is a national park in the Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. The Riversleigh World Heritage Area is a World Heritage Site within the park.
The park lies on the traditiona ...
in Queensland, when food is in short supply, it has been observed pulling up seedling ''Livistona
''Livistona'' is a genus of palms, the botanical family Arecaceae, native to southeastern and eastern Asia, Australasia, and the Horn of Africa. They are fan palms, the leaves with an armed petiole terminating in a rounded, costapalmate f ...
'' palms with its teeth, eating the roots and stems, and discarding the leaves. When they are available, it eats the fruits of these palms, but in the dry season it also crushes and eats the hard seeds. It also consumes other seeds that have passed through the guts of fruit-eating birds.[ It sometimes digs holes in dry creeks and billabongs to search for water, and this is thought to help it avoid being killed by the ]saltwater crocodile
The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats and brackish wetlands from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaic region to northern Australia and Micronesia. It has been list ...
(''Crocodylus porosus'') that can be found beside rivers.[
Breeding takes place at any time of the year, with the female becoming receptive soon after giving birth. Male behaviour includes "play-fighting", leaping into the air, and sinuously lashing the tail. After a brief courtship, mating takes place after which an ]embryonic diapause Embryonic diapause (from late 19th century English: dia- ‘through’ + pause- 'delay') (aka delayed implantation in mammals) is an evolutionary reproductive strategy used by several animal species across a number of kingdoms, including approximate ...
occurs, in which the embryo remains in a state of dormancy before implanting. The gestation period is about 30 days, after which the young wallaby is born and makes its way to its mother's pouch. It remains there for 7–8 months and is weaned at about 11 months.[
]
Status
The agile wallaby has a wide range and is common over much of that range. It faces no major threats; however, in New Guinea it is shot for bushmeat and in Australia it is sometimes killed by farmers as a pest. It is present in a number of protected areas in Australia, but this is not the case in New Guinea. Overall, the population is thought to be declining, but the total population is large and the rate of decline is slow, so the IUCN considers this species to be of least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...
.[
In ]Western Province, Papua New Guinea
Western Province is a coastal province in southwestern Papua New Guinea, bordering the Indonesian province of Papua. The provincial capital is Daru. The largest town in the province is Tabubil. Other major settlements are Kiunga, Ningerum, Olso ...
, agile wallabies are hunted by local indigenous peoples using fire drives.
In Aboriginal language and culture
In the Bininj Kunwok
Bininj Kunwok is an Australian Aboriginal language which includes six dialects: Kunwinjku (formerly Gunwinggu), Kuninjku, Kundjeyhmi (formerly Gundjeihmi), Manyallaluk Mayali (Mayali), Kundedjnjenghmi, and two varieties of Kune (Kune Dulerayek a ...
language the male agile wallaby is known as ', and the female as '. According to Kunwinjku elder Peterson Nganjmirra, the "small one" (joey) is known as '.
References
External links
Photo of female with young wallaby and notes
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q109262313, from2=Q209517
Macropods
Mammals of Papua New Guinea
Mammals of Queensland
Mammals of the Northern Territory
Mammals of Western Australia
Mammals of Western New Guinea
Marsupials of Australia
Mammals described in 1842
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN
Marsupials of New Guinea