parma wallaby2 Click to enlarge image
parma wallaby Image: Nathan Rupert
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Fast Facts

  • Classification
    Genus
    Notamacropus
    Species
    parma
    Family
    Macropodidae
    Order
    Diprotodontia
    Class
    Mammalia
    Phylum
    Chordata
  • Size Range
    Up to 52.8 cm

Grey-brown with a white throat and chest, pale grey belly and a dark dorsal stripe running from the head to the middle of the back.

Identification

A small grey-brown wallaby, with a white throat and chest, pale grey belly and a dark dorsal stripe running from the head to the middle of the back. Pale cheek stripe and, frequently, a white tip to the tail.

Habitat

Wet sclerophyll forest with dense understory, occasionally also in rainforest and dry sclerophyll forest.

Distribution

Eastern Australia.


Distribution data sourced from the Atlas of Living Australia

Feeding and diet

A solitary, nocturnal species that spends the day resting in dense vegetation. It emerges in the evening, utilising well-established runways, to feed at night on grasses and herbs in more open areas.

Breeding behaviours

It breeds throughout the year. A single young is born after about 35 days gestation and attaches to one of four teats in the mother’s pouch, where it spends the next 7 months. Sexual maturity is reached at 12-24 months.

Conservation status

A rare and cryptic species with a patchy distribution. Populations in the Illawarra region are now extinct.


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