Mareeba Rock Wallabies

Rock Wallabies are one of the most species rich groups of Macropodids (kangaroos, wallabies, pademelons etc) in Australia today (Potter et al. 2014). They occur largely in rocky terrain including such areas as gorges, cliffs, and escarpments (Van Dyk & Strahan 2008 cited in Potter et al. 2014). Owing to this, though widely distributed, they are also patchily distributed. The taxonomy of rock wallabies is still a work in progress, with one 'subspecies', Petrogale c. concinna known only from a single specimen collected in 1839, and another separated into at least two distinct species in late 2014 (Potter et al. 2014).

 Northern Queensland is graced with three species in the Petrogale genus, P. assimilis, P. mareeba and P. sharmani (Eldridge et al. 2008). These three species are morphologically identical, and, owing to all three species inhabiting only a small part of the Cape York peninsula, problematic to identify (Eldridge et al. 2008).

Distribution map from Eldrige et al. (2008, p. 39) Fig. 1. Known distribution of P. assimilis (+), P. mareeba («) and P. sharmani (▲) in north-east Queensland.

Owing to the narrow habitat selectivity and relatively few known population locations of these three species, spread over only a small geographical area, it is easy to image how human induced factors such as road mortality could become a real issue for these species.

Watch out for wildlife on roads!

Luckily for me, the population of rock wallabies inhabiting Granite gorge, a few km outside of Mareeba, are positively Mareeba rock wallabies! Which saves me a no doubt challenging and time consuming search..


Here are some of my efforts to photograph the Mareeba rock wallaby, I attempted to take some portrait style images, but more to include as much of the character of the rocky environment this species inhabits.

Being marsupials, it would be rude of me not to include a photo of the pouch in use!

One of my favourite photos from the weekend.

A nice one to round off with.. 

I hope you enjoyed the rock wallabies as much as I did, please feel free to share with people who may be interested.

Until next week..!

References

Eldridge, M. D. B., Johnson, P. M., Hensler, P., Holden, J. and Close, R. L. K. (2008) The distribution of three parapatric, cryptic species of rock-wallably (Petrogale) in north-east Queensland: P. assimilis, P. Mareeba, and P. sharmani. Australian Mammalogy, 30(1), 37-42. Available from: www.publish.csiro.au [Mar 23, 2015].


Potter, S., Close, R. L., Taggart, D. A., Cooper, S. J. B, & Eldridge, M. D. B. (2014) Taxonomy of rock-wallabies, Petrogale (Marsupialia: Macropodidae). IV. Multifaceted study of the brachyotis group identifies additional taxa. Australian Journal of Zoology, 65(2), 401-414. Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/ [Mar 23, 2015].

Van Dyck, S. & Strahan, R. (2008) ‘The Mammals of Australia.’ ‘3^rd edn. (New Holland: Sydney).