Agile wallabies live in northern Australia and New Guinea. Its typical habitat is dry open woodland, heaths, dunes and grassland. Wallabies eat mostly leaves, but they also eat flowers, ferns, moss and even insects. They prefer to feed at night but also graze early in the morning and late evening when it's cool.
They rest in the shade during the day. The Wallaby has a chambered stomach similar to that of a horse. Its U-shaped fore-stomach helps it digest fibrous plant material. The wallaby regurgitates its food, chews it again and swallows it chews the cud.
This extra munching breaks down the rough fibres of their diet and greatly improves its digestion. The Wallaby is well adapted to the dry, hot Australian climate. It needs very little water, extracting moisture it needs from its food. It can survive for months without drinking.
Wallabies also have an excellent sense of the weather and have been known to detect rainfall as far as 20 kilometres away and head towards it. A wallaby produces almost no methane Ch4 gas which is produced in large quantities by cattle and sheep. The wallaby's digestive system converts the hydrogen by-products of digestion to acetate, which is then absorbed and used to provide energy.
The wallaby releases carbon dioxide CO2 instead, which is 23 times less harmful to the environment than methane. A baby wallaby is no larger than a jelly-bean 2cm and weighs as little as one gram.
By comparison a human baby is about 3, times larger! The reason for this is because wallabies belong to a group of animals known as marsupials. Marsupial babies have two stages of development. Hence the name marsupial. A baby wallaby is called a joey. Stage 1 — A wallaby joey is born approximately 30 days after gestation.
Using its little forelimbs in a swimming breaststroke motion, the young joey crawls laboriously up its mother's fur to the pouch. This journey takes it about three minutes. The joey's journey is made entirely by itself. The mother does not assist it in any way. Stage 2 — Once inside its mother's pouch, the joey quickly attaches itself firmly to one of four nipples in the pouch.
Once it has attached itself to its mother's nipple, the young joey will stay hidden for up to six and a half months. Then it will start to tentatively pop its head out of its mother's pouch and observe the world around it. About two weeks later, it will have gained enough confidence to venture out of the pouch and hop about close to its mother.
However, if frightened, it will immediately jump back into the safety of the pouch. By the time it is about 8 months old, the joey no longer uses its mother's pouch. Wallabies live for 6 to 15 years. Wallaby Reproduction? As with all macropods, wallabies have powerful hind legs and large feet specially designed for hopping. It has perfected this mode of locomotion to make it one of the fastest and most efficient methods of travelling over the vast distances the animal travels in search of food.
A wallaby's legs have muscles just like all other animals. The difference is that it has evolved a very efficient and different means of moving around.
It hops instead of walking. It is the only large animal that uses this method of locomotion. The wallaby's legs are specially designed for this purpose. Because of the unusual shape of these legs and its bulky tail, a wallaby can't walk. A single hop from a wallaby can cover up to 8 meters! A human stride is only about 1 meter. Even an elephant can only manage about 2. Wedge-tailed eagle. Topics Animals and plants Native animals Native animal facts Kangaroos and wallabies Kangaroos, wallabies, pademelons, bettongs and potoroos Kangaroos and wallabies are marsupials that belong to a small group of animals called macropods.
Slide controls:. Where do they live expand. Kangaroos and wallabies live just about everywhere! Red kangaroos are found on the flat open plains. Grey kangaroos overlap the reds but prefer denser scrubs and forests. Wallaroos have an extensive range throughout the inland, but prefer rocky outcrops or stony ground. Rock-wallabies live among piles of boulders, rocky hills and cliffs. Tree-kangaroos two species of which live in Australia are found in the mountainous rainforests of north Queensland.
Smaller species of wallabies and kangaroos live in a wide range of habitats, from desert to woodland to rainforest. Threats expand. Kangaroos and livestock expand. Managing kangaroo populations expand. Protection of native animals All native birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals, but not including dingoes, are protected in NSW by the Biodiversity Conservation Act Page last updated 16 February The following buttons will open a feedback form below Was this page helpful?
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I would like EES to contact me in the future for help improving services and to share information about national parks or other environmental activities. Threatened species profiles Brush-tailed rock wallaby Brush-tailed bettong Burrowing bettong Long-nosed potoroo Rufous bettong Yellow-footed rock wallaby.
Download Living with kangaroos This brochure explains ways in which people can avoid conflict with kangaroos and injury, through learning more about their habitat needs and understanding their behaviour. PDF KB. More info. Drought has been bringing wallabies and kangaroos closer to towns in search of food and water.
Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies live in south-east Queensland all the way down to the Grampians in western Victoria, in rocky outcrops, escarpments and cliffs with caves and ledges.
During the day they hide amongst their rocky habitat or bask in the sunlight. They are most active at night when they eat grasses, leaves and fruits that grow nearby. The Swamp Wallaby, or Black Wallaby, lives in eastern Australia in thick forested areas and sandstone heath.
It is dark brown with a lighter stomach and chest. The Parma Wallaby is a solitary, nocturnal species that feeds in the evening on grasses and herbs. Also known as the White-throated Wallaby, it is a small animal with a white throat and chest and a pale stripe on its cheek. Exposing them to an artificial diet may also cause health problems and create unnatural concentrations of animals.
And if a kangaroo or wallaby becomes aggressive. If you are approached by an aggressive kangaroo or wallaby you should keep it at a safe distance so that it can't kick or scratch. For example, hold up a stick or branch, or stay behind a fence or a tree. Move away from the animal as quickly as you can. Turning your back on it and running could be dangerous as a large male can easily outrun you and still kick at the same time. Turn side-on and protect the front of your body with your arms and keep your head as far away from the animal as possible to minimise the risk of being scratched on the face.
If it is a large male that has been displaying dominance behaviour, it may see you as a threat. Protect yourself and let the animal know you are not a threat by giving a short, deep cough, avoiding eye contact and crouching down as you move away.
Females and smaller male animals are less likely to be aggressive but may approach if they are used to being fed or have had a lot of human contact. Even though females are much smaller than males, they can scratch and kick and could pose a safety risk - particularly to small children. As a last resort, if you can't escape an attacking kangaroo or wallaby, roll up into a ball on the ground with your arm covering your neck and call for help.
Try to roll or crawl away to a safe place. The kangaroo: an Aussie icon The kangaroo is an Australian icon. Its size, strength and speed are traits that make it a natural logo or emblem for Australian organisations and sporting clubs. It is also part of our national coat of arms. Kangaroos are also symbolic of another Australian trait: to stick up for yourself and not back down with their large back feet and tail, kangaroos find it hard to move backwards.
However, unlike their human counterparts, adult males fight their rivals to gain higher status within a local group or 'mob' and the dominant male will father the next generation of joeys. But many people see large male kangaroos as placid grazing animals.
The reality is that they can be aggressive towards people. Although the risk of this happening is very small, we still need to be wary around them.
Looking eye to eye at an eastern grey kangaroo The eastern grey kangaroo readily adapts to altered landscapes that still provide shelter, water and grass to eat. Golf courses, outer suburban parks, rural residential areas and farmland can all provide habitat for eastern grey kangaroos. Without fear of being hunted or disturbed, eastern grey kangaroos have had little inclination to move out of their traditional habitats and territories.
They now tolerate our presence and we tolerate theirs, often enjoying the sight of one of our largest native animals at close quarters.
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