AUSTRALIAN MAMMALS

Dingo

The Latin name Canis lupus dingo which means they are considered a subspecies of the wolf – Canis lupus. While dog like in many aspects of their behaviour, in captivity they remain aloof, more like the relationship many people describe with cats. It has been proposed that the dogs either arrived with early sea farers 3,500 years ago or walked across a land bridge much earlier, anywhere between 4,500 and 18,000 years ago. The alpine dingoes of eastern Victoria grow a second coat in winter, just like a fleecy jumper, and they shed this again in summer. Hybridisation with domestic dogs is a threat to their existence as a species. Naturally they live in packs of up to ten with a dominant female and her mate as pack leaders. They hunt kangaroos and other prey cooperatively as a pack. While a threatened species, conflict with stock farmers can see dingoes legally controlled. Wild dingoes make wolf-like bark-howl calls but some domesticated dingoes do learn to bark. Our dingoes meet their keepers with a melody of howls every morning. Once a year, females typically give birth to around five offspring after a gestation period of around two months. Baby dingoes are called pups. At 6 to 8 months, the pups are fully grown and ready to separate from their mother. At 3 years, they find a mate and often mate for life.

Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby

The most beautifully coloured wallaby, the yellow-footed choose to live on rocky outcrops where they are adapted to bound effortlessly across the rocks. They will drink water if available but can survive for much of the year without water by obtaining it from their food. They’re usually best seen in the early morning or late afternoon basking on rocky ledges in the sun.

There are two populations, about 2000 animals in South Australia and another 200 in New South Wales. Their decline was due to introduced foxes and feral cats as well as competition for food from domestic stock and fires. Significant effort by conservation agencies including a captive breed and release programme by zoos has seen the species gradually increase in numbers. Aboriginal landowners have managed a very successful conservation programme in South Australia. The bounce back of the species in the Flinders Ranges has been exceptional with park visitors now regularly seeing the species in the ranges.

The Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby has played a key role in Zoos South Australia’s highly successful wallaby cross-foster program. Under this program a critically endangered Victorian Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby joey is removed from its mother and fostered by a Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby. This in turn allows the critically endangered Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby to give birth to another joey approximately 30 days later increasing the amount of offspring one female can produce in a year. The surrogacy program has assisted in building the population of the species with less than 60 individuals remaining in the wild.

Quokka

Once widely distributed across the southwest of Western Australia and offshore islands, these small marsupials now exist on two offshore islands and one small mainland population. The arrival of dingoes and more recently foxes and cats have all impacted quokka numbers. Fire is a serious threat to their small populations. They are closely related to kangaroos and wallabies with young growing in the mothers pouch. They are herbivores and it is not uncommon for them to climb tree stems to feed on leaves. Often referred to as the “worlds happiest animals” they are famous on social media for what appears to be a smile on their faces. They are resilient with fat stored in their tails in times of plenty and able to go weeks at a time without water while they get their water from the plants they eat. Unlike many of the kangaroos and wallabies, quokkas are not territorial and aggressive to each other.

Southern hairy-nosed Wombat

The southern hairy-nosed wombat is the smallest one of three existing species of wombats in Australia. They are a stout and robust animal with strong claws adapted to digging. Despite their slow appearance they can run up to 40kmh, faster than the majority of people. Distributed patchily in areas of semi-arid shrubland and Mallee, populations are highly fragmented. The greatest threat to the species is currently Sarcoptic mange as can occur in our domestic pets. In some areas mange has killed off up to 80% of the population. The species lives in extensive underground burrow systems which can contain several individuals. Females produce a single young that lives in the pouch for six to seven months and is weaned after about a year, although in drought years reproduction may cease completely. Their teeth continue to grow throughout their entire life which is required due to the tough and abrasive vegetation that they feed on. They are a long-lived species reaching up to 15 years in the wild but they breed at a slow rate.

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo

The Kangaroo Island Kangaroo is a sub-species of the Western Grey Kangaroo. As a result of a prolonged period of isolation from mainland Australia, the Kangaroo Island Kangaroo is noticeably different from other Western Grey species. Due to the Kangaroo Island landscape, this species have adapted to being shorter, stockier and a darker chocolate-brown colour. They characteristically have darker tips, such as ears, paws, feet and tails. Both males and females become sexually mature at around 20 months old and under ideal conditions the population can double in 2 years. Young stay in the pouch for 40-45 weeks, gradually spending more time out than in. If a mother loses a pouch young, she comes into oestrus (becomes fertile again) within 6 days and will then mate again. Dominant males have a strong scent gland on their chest, which they use to physically mark their territory. Within each mob, there is one male leader, or ‘the boss’, who visits each female and assesses their reproductive status. Young males often spar and older males owill fight over females. This includes “boxing” and leaning back on their tails and then kicking each other with their powerful hindlimbs.

Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby

Listed as threatened, the Brush-tailed rock-wallaby occurs in fragmented populations roughly following the Great Dividing Range from southwest Queensland to western Victoria’s Grampians. They live on rocky escarpments, granite outcrops and cliffs, which have caves and ledges for shelter.

The population declined greatly after European settlement when people hunted the species for their pelts. Foxes are well known to prey on brush-tails and have been the primary reason for the failure of some of the attempts to release into the wild.

It was estimated in 2020 that there were less than 100 Southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies left in the wild in Australia. The Southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby (sub-species) program was established in 1996 when there was estimated to be about 40 left in the wild. The initial focus was to build up a captive population as quickly as possible for re-introduction. To achieve this a technique called cross-fostering of joeys to yellow-footed rock wallabies was used to rapidly accelerate breeding. The technique was highly successful – the captive population grew enough to allow for the first trial re-introduction in 2008 in the Grampians National Park. This method improved the understanding of reintroductions developing novel approaches for improving reintroduction success. Large fenced, and predator proof areas, such as Mount Rothwell, are proving very successful in breeding numbers of this species. Genetic diversity is a challenge for this species and scientists have been working on a programme to maximise genetic diversity.

The population at our zoo are part of the original captive breeding programme to act as an insurance against the extinction of the species.

Red-necked Wallaby

A common species through the Grampians region but unlike kangaroos, wallabies do not form large mobs and are usually found singularly or in small groups. Also known in Tasmania as the Bennett’s Wallaby, they have longer ears than those of others of the kangaroo family and swivel their ears to pick up soft sounds.

Males are aggressive towards each other and fight by “boxing”. Groups are known as a mob, herd or troop. They cool off by licking their paws and forearms in hot weather and hold these wet areas out towards a breeze. Wallabies feed on tough vegetation and their teeth grow like an elephant’s, with new molars pushing old ones out of the mouth eventually and replacing them. During their lifetime they grow four sets of teeth.

Swamp Wallaby

Also known as the Black Wallaby, they are usually solitary and seldom venture far from forest and bracken. A female can have two joeys developing internally. At birth, the joey weighs less than 1g and spends about 8 months in its mother’s pouch. A suckling newborn temporarily halts the development of the second embryo which remains dormant until the first young is ready to leave the pouch. When alarmed they stamp their feet for several bounds, as a warning to others of potential danger. Their gait differs from other wallabies, with the swamp wallaby carrying its head low and its tail out straight. A highly productive species with the females constantly pregnant throughout its lifetime with a joey in the pouch and the next embryo already growing internally.