Tiny Cousins

Take a close look at the picture below. Don't peek at the name! What animal do you think it is? Did you guess kangaroo? Nice try, but your answer is not quite right. It's actually a wallaby!

Wallaby

Image courtesy of National Geographic

Classification: Mammal (marsupial)
Size: 22-70 in / 55-178 cm
Weight: 4-53 lb / 2-24 kg
Diet: Herbivorous
Lifespan: 9 years (in the wild)
Appearance: may vary depending on habitat; long, sturdy tail
Status: 

Least of concern to somewhat threatened. They may vary depending on their habitat (bush, rock, etc.) but the groups at the biggest risk are the rock wallaby and the parma wallaby.

This interesting species is actually a smaller cousin of the kangaroo (mentioned in last week's blog post). They are categorized into many smaller "groups" usually according to their habitat, such as the rock wallaby, brush wallaby, and tammar wallaby. Even among these smaller groups, they split into more subspecies! Altogether, the wallabies almost cover the whole Australia continent:

Map from National Geographic

The groups we should be most concerned about are the rock wallaby and the parma wallaby. Here is each species' story:

Rock Wallaby: Although once pretty common, the rock wallaby is starting to lose its numbers, and is regarded as endangered in New South Wales, Australia. The main factors contributing to their decline include habitat destruction (logging, clearing land, etc) and a changed pattern wildfires take when sweeping across the landscape. Their main predator is the fox, and must compete against farm livestock and sometimes rabbits for food sources. A long time ago, hunting for their furs was also a contribution to their shaky population, but it is no longer an issue anymore. Exactly how endangered are rock wallabies? According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, there are only two colonies left in NSW, Australia.

Parma Wallaby: This species has an interesting story. Thought to be extinct since the late 1800's, people almost forgot about them until they met a miracle. While trying to decrease the tammar wallaby population (which were overcrowding their habitat), workers there discovered that those wallabies were not tammars--they were parma wallabies! This sparked a "refreshed" interest in conserving and maintaining the parma wallaby population. The San Diego Zoo/Safari Park and their Global Wildlife Conservancy is helping bring these species back up to renewed, plentiful numbers.

I think now is the time for some clarification between kangaroos and wallabies (which some might have been confused about since last week)

Kangaroo vs. Wallaby
There one main, big difference between the kangaroo and wallaby--its size. Kangaroos are much larger, varying to hip height to the size of a full grown man. Wallabies are much smaller (tiny cousins) and their hind legs and feet are not as big in proportion. However, both have strong tails used to prop themselves up, and they all belong to the Macropodidae family, which means "big feet."

Conservation
Although some wallaby species are not as endangered as others, it is important to keep all species safe and high in numbers. Big organizations such as WWF and SDZ are using research and education to spread awareness. What will you do? Not all actions that save animals are the stereotypic "heroic" ones. Simple things, like saving a bit of water, or recycling just one for bottle each day, can help preserve the environment, which in turn, will help the animals and their habitat. More great conservation organizations and websites will be posted in next week's article.

Speaking of next week, what will you learn? Just as the brief overview on a post a couple weeks ago had stated, next week will be the last post of the Australian Outback theme. But don't turn that grin of yours upside down! Next week, I will give you a detailed description of great Outback places to visit and see in person the animals we've covered this month. Great tours, sights, attractions, and maybe even lodging and pricing will be included. Whoa, that's a lot of work for me! In addition, I will also put up a list of great conservation programs, as well as their websites, for all of us to gain some more inspiration on what we can do. 

Sources:
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/rock_wallaby/
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/wallaby/http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/rock_wallaby/
http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/kangaroo-wallaby