Tammar Wallaby (Notamacropus eugenii) lives in open savanna across Southwest Australia. It feeds on grass and leaves. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
Fascinating facts about the Tammar Wallaby
- A single tammar wallaby can leap up to 2.4 m (7.9 ft) while landing 3.5 times each second, and its knee-hip muscles hand off power to ankle tendons that store elastic energy for the next hop. This spring-like system lets mothers carry joeys without extra fuel, because the tendons recycle the bounce rather than burning calories. The result is a hopping speed boost, a trait shared with red kangaroos but absent in rock-wallabies that need stronger tendons for cliffs.
- Tammar wallabies see almost all around them: their eyes give a 324° peripheral sweep and 50° of binocular focus, letting them spot predators while still being able to glance at their own forepaws. Their colour vision is limited to blue-green wavelengths, yet they can tell two shades apart that differ by just 20 nm. This visual acuity, combined with ears that can boost a 5 kHz sound by up to 30 dB when the pinna points at it, creates a sensory suite that lets them spot predators.
- Females can nurse a joey in the pouch while a second embryo lies dormant in the uterus, a strategy called embryonic diapause that pauses development for nearly a year. The pouch young suppresses the blastocyst for the first six months; removing the joey triggers the embryo to resume, but after that window the blastocyst stays dormant until the summer solstice in December.
- During dry summer months a tammar wallaby's home range can swell to 42 ha (100 acres), more than double the 16 ha (40 acres) they need in winter. Larger ranges let them chase higher-quality forage when water and green shoots are scarce. Group living reduces each individual's vigilance, letting them spend more time feeding and grooming.
- Tammar wallabies can drink seawater because their kidneys concentrate urine and their colon reabsorbs water, producing dry feces. This ability lets them thrive on islands without fresh water, such as the Houtman Abrolhos, where they were first recorded after the 1629 Batavia shipwreck. They pant and lick their forearms to keep cool, and they breathe more heavily and lose more water when temperatures exceed 30 °C (86 °F); they cannot endure heat above 40 °C (104 °F), forcing them to seek shade during extreme heat waves.
Sources
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At a glance
RangeSouthwest Australia
HabitatOpen savanna
DietGrass and leaves
About the Tammar Wallaby
In the sun-baked scrublands of southern Australia, the Tammar Wallaby weaves a gentle path, its soft padded feet barely disturbing the dusty earth as it forages for leaves and grasses with quiet intent. With each effortless bound, its powerful hind legs propel it forward in a fluid arc, a masterclass in economical motion that belies the wallaby's remarkable ability to cover great distances in search of food and shelter. As it pauses to survey its surroundings, the Tammar Wallaby's large, dark eyes shine with a quiet intelligence, a testament to the resilience and adaptability of this unassuming yet fascinating creature.
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