General information

Kangaroos are marsupials and belong to the Family Macropodidae (i.e. big feet) that is grouped with the Potoroidae (potoroos, bettongs, rat-kangaroos) and Hypsiprymnodontidae (musky rat-kangaroo) in the Super-Family, Macropodoidea. This comprises around 50 species in Australia and a dozen or more in New Guinea.  Some of the smaller species, such as Yellow-footed Rock-Wallabies, Burrowing Bettongs, accompanied Pig-footed and Golden Bandicoots, Bilbies and possibly Hairy-nosed Wombats into extinction with the advent of pastoralism. However, the largest species remain in much of their original range with the grey kangaroos expanding inland as grazing habitat increased and coastal habitat was lost in clearance for agriculture. The defining feature of the kangaroo family is that they are the largest vertebrates to hop (both currently and from what we know from palaeontology).

 

Two of the four species of Hare-wallabies that were identified at European colonisation of Australia are extinct. The only species which retains a broad geographic range is the Spectacled Hare-wallaby which also has a small population is southern New Guinea. The genus was once common in the deserts and tropics and south-west of Western Australia. Pastoralism and the introduction of livestock grazing and concomitant changes in fire management and release of rabbits, foxes and cats have wrought a devastating impacts on the attractive small wallabies. A characteristic, emphasised in the Spectacled Hare-wallaby, is the rufous fur around the eye. The Hare-wallabies have long feet with long claws but the fore-limbs are very delicate and short.

Species

Spectacled Hare-wallaby

Lagorchestes conspicillatus leichardti ('Leichardt's spectacled hare dancer')

Best place to see

Daly Waters region, Northern Territory

Daly Waters is a small township of about 23 people, 620 km south of Darwin on the Stuart Highway. The town is known to travellers because of its historic pub which has an interior decorated by the tokens of the many people who have sat at the bar. The pub dates from 1893 and was an important stopover for drovers taking cattle north-south or from the Kimberley to Queensland.  It was a key point in the overland explorations of John McDouall Stuart, the overland telegraph and a Qantas stopover on early flights to Singapore. Accommodation is available at the Pub and Hi-Way Inn and there is a campground and caravan park. You will need to explore the hinterland and take access along some of the old airstrips to view the Spectacled Hare-wallaby. There is a reserve, the Bullwaddy Nature Reserve, about 30 km along the Carpentaria Highway. The Hi-Way Inn sits at the junction of the Stuart and Carpentaria Highways. The latter is part of a tourist route known as the Savannah Way which spans northern Australia linking Cairns in Queensland to Broome in Western Australia.

Identification

Male and female Spectacled hare-wallabies are of similar size. The Spectacled Hare-wallaby is the largest of the Hair-wallabies weighing up to 4.5 kg. The fur on the back is long and coarse with a dark-brown or black colour. However, the tips of the guard hairs are light given a silver-coloured appearance making this a very attractive species. The sides are reddish and light-tipped. The fur on the undersides is long and thick and a uniform slate-grey colour. The general colour years in a grizzled yellow grey. The head is grizzled white and black with a distinctive and well demarcated orange eye ring (the spectacles). The nose is less hairy than other species of Hare-wallabies and the terminal half of the nose and the edges of the nostrils are naked. The ears are very short and have a grizzled grey back. There are white stripes in front of and on the hips. The arms, forepaws, legs and feet are grey tinged with a variable colouring of red. The tail is marked by a thin colouring of pure white hairs.

Habitat

The Spectacled Hare-wallaby is found in tropical grasslands, especially tussock-forming species including spinifex, which may be overlain by a variety of vegetation (tall shrubland, open woodland, open forest in Queensland; Acacia shrublands and tropical savanna in the Northern Territory; spinifex grasslands in Western Australia). The tussocks provide protection and the hare-wallabies tunnel into these and may have several shelters in their home-range. The tussocks also provide thermoregulatory benefits under hot ambient temperatures. This refuge behaviour is coupled with exceptionally efficient physiological mechanisms to conserve water leading to one of the lowest water turnovers (5.3% of total body water per day) of mammals of its size. Its eco-physiology allows it to inhabit dry, hot climates and not drink free-water.

Foraging behaviour

  The diet of the Spectacled Hare-wallaby has been studied at a number of locations. The common denominator is a high consumption of grasses (65% in QLD, 66% in NT and the tips of spinifex on Barrow Island WA). The remainder of the diet is various herbs (forbs) like legumes which may provide more water in its diet than grasses. On Barrow Island it eats the seedlings of colonising shrubs. It may benefit from re-growth after fire if the burning is patchy. It is likely vulnerable to loss of tussock grassland habitat through frequent hot burns that are now common is pastoral regions. These large-scale burns further expose it to predation by feral cats. The home range estimated in a Queensland study at 177 ha is quite large, especially for an essentially solitary species and so densities are unlikely to be high.

Reproductive behaviour

Breeding can occur throughout the year. Gestation is 29-31 d and oestrus follows shortly after birth with post-partum mating. Embryonic diapause occurs in this species. Births are clumped on Barrow Island around the late Dry season (September) and towards the end of the Wet season (March). Pouch life is about 150 d and sexual maturity is reached within a year.

Social organisation

The species is typically solitary but small aggregations of around three individuals have been observed feeding in the same area. Thus home ranges are likely not exclusive and only shelter sites defended. THis deserves further study.

Further readings

Burbidge AA, Johnson PM (2008). Spectacled Hare-wallaby. In The Mammals of Australia 3rd Edition, (Van Dyck S, Strahan R eds.) pp. 314-316. (New Holland Reed, Chatswood).

Ingleby S, Westoby M (1992) Habitat requirements of the spectacled hare-wallaby (Lagorchestes conspicillatus) in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Wildlife Research 19, 721-741.

Short J, Turner B (1991) Distribution and abundance of spectacled hare-wallabies and euros on Barrow Island, Western Australia. Wildlife Research 18, 421-429.