Dorsal stripes wallaby
| Dorsal stripes wallaby | ||||||||||||
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Stripe back wallaby, drawing by John Gould |
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| Macropus dorsalis | ||||||||||||
| ( Gray , 1837) |
The back stripe wallaby ( Macropus dorsalis ) is a species of kangaroo from the subgenus of wallabies ( Notamacropus ). It lives in eastern Australia .
features
Back strip wallabies reach a head body length of 53 to 82 centimeters and a tail length of 54 to 83 centimeters. At around 16 kilograms, the males are significantly heavier than the females, who only reach 6.5 kilograms. As with most kangaroos, the hind legs are significantly longer and stronger than the front legs, the tail is long and muscular. The fur of these animals is gray-brown on the back and light gray to whitish on the belly. The name-giving feature is the black stripe on the back, other fur markings are the white stripe on the cheek and the white spot on the hip.
distribution and habitat
Back stripe wallabies live in eastern Australia. Their distribution area extends from the Cape York Peninsula ( Queensland ) to northeastern New South Wales . The habitat of these animals are forests with thick undergrowth.
Way of life
These kangaroos are mainly nocturnal, during the day they rest hidden in the thick undergrowth. At night they go in search of food, looking for more open places and mostly eating grass. They live in groups of 2 to 20 animals that stay close to each other even when foraging at night and do not move more than 30 meters apart. The groups show no pronounced social structure, the composition changes again and again, and the group size fluctuates as well.
After a gestation period of around 33 to 35 days, the female gives birth to a single young. As with many kangaroo species, delayed birth can also be observed in them . The young animal spends its first seven months in the mother's pouch and is weaned at around one year. Sexual maturity occurs at 14 to 20 months.
Danger
Backstripe wallabies have suffered from the transformation of their habitat into pasture areas, but today the populations are stable and have recovered to such an extent that the animals are considered a nuisance in some places. The IUCN lists the species as not endangered.
The species is no longer kept in Europe, former owners are Cologne, Hamburg, Frankfurt, London, Rotterdam and Rome.
supporting documents
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
Web links
- Information on Animal Diversity Web
- Information from the National Park and Wildlife Service (PDF file; 782 kB)
- Macropus dorsalis onthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . Retrieved May 12, 2009.