parma wallaby2 Click to enlarge image
parma wallaby Image: Nathan Rupert
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Fast Facts

  • Classification
    Genus
    Notamacropus
    Species
    parma
    Family
    Macropodidae
    Order
    Diprotodontia
    Class
    Mammalia
    Phylum
    Chordata
  • Size Range
    Up to 52.8 cm

Grey-brown with a white throat and chest, pale grey belly and a dark dorsal stripe running from the head to the middle of the back.

Identification

A small grey-brown wallaby, with a white throat and chest, pale grey belly and a dark dorsal stripe running from the head to the middle of the back. Pale cheek stripe and, frequently, a white tip to the tail.

Habitat

Wet sclerophyll forest with dense understory, occasionally also in rainforest and dry sclerophyll forest.

Distribution

Eastern Australia.



Feeding and diet

A solitary, nocturnal species that spends the day resting in dense vegetation. It emerges in the evening, utilising well-established runways, to feed at night on grasses and herbs in more open areas.

Breeding behaviours

It breeds throughout the year. A single young is born after about 35 days gestation and attaches to one of four teats in the mother’s pouch, where it spends the next 7 months. Sexual maturity is reached at 12-24 months.

Conservation status

A rare and cryptic species with a patchy distribution. Populations in the Illawarra region are now extinct.


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