What is a swamp wallaby?
Swamp wallabies are marsupials, a type of mammal that has a pouch and gives birth to extremely premature young that grow and develop inside their mother’s pouch. They belong to a group of marsupials known as macropods which means ‘big foot’ in Latin. Macropods include wallabies, wallaroos, kangaroos, quokkas, pademelons, tree kangaroos and other similar animals.
Swamp wallabies are generally smaller than a kangaroo, have more flexible tails and are darker in colour. Their fur ranges from charcoal to chocolate brown, typically with a white stripe along their jaw line and grey fur in parts. They have incredible strength in their legs and are able to jump up to three metres.
Wallabies, like most marsupials, are crepuscular which means they are mostly active in the early morning and late afternoon however they can also be active in the cool of the day and through the night.
The scientific name for swamp wallabies is Wallabia bicolour. In local Darug language, these wallabies are called banggaray – swamp wallaby or wallaba – wallaby.
Where do swamp wallabies live?
Swamp wallabies are mostly solitary animals but can be found grazing together in semi-open grasslands. They are commonly found along the east coast of Australia, with their distribution stretching from Cape York in Queensland down to the south west of Victoria. They can be found living in coastal heathland, rainforest and woodland habitats.
Their preferred habitat is dense shrubby bushland near creek lines. Swamp wallabies are habitual animals and will often use the same track to get to waterways. Often you will find these tracks going across the pathway when walking in the bush.
Swamp wallabies are regularly spotted in dense bushland close to suburban areas especially in the Sydney basin. They have been introduced to New Zealand but are not native there.
What do swamp wallabies eat?
Swamp wallabies are herbivorous animals that like to eat grasses, shrubs, ferns and low lying bushes including eucalyptus, grevillea, bottlebrush and other flowering shrubs.
What role do swamp wallabies play in the ecosystem?
Swamp wallabies help decompose the vegetation and make healthy soils for native plants. Their faeces provide nutrients for the soil and helps spread seeds and other fungal spores. Their grazing also helps prune the low lying vegetation.
How are swamp wallabies adapted to their environment?
Swamp wallabies have survived well in the urban areas because they only graze near dense bushland where they can make a quick escape. Their broken colouring of rusty red, black, white, brown and grey fur, helps them to camouflage with their environment. They will stand still in the dense bush using their camouflage as a defence from predators.
Swamp wallabies are also excellent swimmers which makes it easy to cross waterways away from predators.
Swamp wallabies can move their ears separately in different directions up to 180 degrees. This helps them to hear predators coming from all directions.
How do swamp wallabies reproduce and what is their life cycle?
Swamp wallabies are mostly solitary animals but will come together to mate. Males will compete with other males in the area in order to mate with a female. They breed throughout the year, mainly during winter and spring. Swamp wallabies will communicate to each other using vocalisations such as nasal snorts, grunting and clicking noises.
Being a marsupial swamp wallabies have a pouch and give birth to underdeveloped young. Like all marsupial babies, a baby swamp wallaby is called a joey. After 33 - 38 days of gestation (time in the womb), the joey is born. Joeys are blind, have no fur and are extremely small, about the size of a small pink jelly bean. They use their forelimbs to crawl into the mothers pouch where they attach to a teat and continue to develop.
Swamp wallabies can be pregnant and also have a joey suckling in the pouch. Joeys will stay in the pouch for just over a month after they are born. They will then emerge in and out of the pouch to suckle on their mothers milk for up to 15 months. The swamp wallaby is fully grown at around 15 to 18 months.
What threats do swamp wallabies face?
Swamp wallabies are commonly found in Sydney however their population has been affected by introduced species and the clearing of their habitat for development.
Bushfires are also a threat to swamp wallaby populations. In areas where their habitat is close to roads wallabies are often killed by oncoming cars, especially when the roads traverse through dense bushland. Foxes are an introduced predator that will attack the swamp wallaby, particularly their joeys when they have just emerged from the pouch. Other introduced animals like feral cats will also attack the young of the swamp wallaby.
