Bennett’s Wallaby

NAME:

Bennett’s Wallaby

ZOO NAME:

Emerald, Jet, Tucker, Opal & Chance

CLASS:

Mammalia

ORDER:

Diprotodontia

GENUS:

Micropus rufogiseus

LENGTH:

28-36″ tall

WEIGHT:

Up to 60 lbs

LIFESPAN:

12-15 years in captivity

DIET:

Herbivore. Grasses, leaves & other vegitatoin

RANGE

Tasmania, Victoria, southeastern Australia, eastern New South Wales, southeastern Queensland and Flinders Island.

HABITAT

Woodlands, shrub lands and grasslands

CHARACTERISTICS

The Bennett’s wallaby is about 800 mm tall. It has soft grey fur and black paws. The male’s weigh approximately 15kg, and have a red neck. The female weighs approximately11kg and has bluish-grey fur. The forelimbs are short and the hind legs are large and muscular with long hind feet and a very large fourth toe.

BEHAVIOR

When moving fast, it hops on the hind limbs, using the long and rather inflexible tail to provide balance. The powerful hind legs are used to hop forward, but the forelegs are used as well to move around while grazing. The tail is thumped on the ground to warn other wallabies of approaching danger. The eyesight is poor, but it possess actuate hearing. The Bennett’s wallaby is mostly nocturnal, but can be active at dusk or dawn.

REPRODUCTION

After a gestation period of 30 days, the incredibly tiny wallaby baby, also known as a joey, born naked, blind and helpless, must pull itself up into its mother’s pouch. It will stay here for the next nine to ten months, eventually growing to 2,000 times its birth size. The female possesses four teats inside the pouch, and the joey may nurse until it is over a year old. At six to seven months, it begins to poke its head out of the pouch and eat whatever vegetation it can reach while the mother is grazing. When it has grown big enough to leave the pouch, the joey will still hop in and out of the pouch for the next few months to nurse. Female offspring often stay within the home range of their mothers, while males move away to find their own home range at about two years of age.