Name: Bennett's Wallabies
Scientific name: Macropus rufogriseus
DISTRIBUTION : Mainland Australia, Tasmania
ORDER : Marsupialia
FAMILY : Macropodidae
HABITAT : Forest, brush & open areas
DIET : Herbivores, eating leaves, grass, twigs, some fruits & vegetables.
A group of wallabies is called a mob.
Bennett's Wallabies are normally grey-brown with a white stomach however, albinos are found in all species of marsupial. In captivity, albino births are quite common, as albino parents will produce an albino Joey. In the wild albino births are as few as one in 10,000.
Small colonies of Bennett's Wallabies live wild in the North of England having escaped from collections in the 1930's.
Males (boomers) can weigh more than 20kg and stand up to 1.5m in height. Females (flyers) are smaller.
Wallabies and kangaroos are macropods which means, "large footed" and are characterised by their hind legs and long tail.
REPRODUCTION
The Wallaby is a marsupial and like all marsupials the females have a pouch in which to carry their young. A young wallaby is called a Joey.
Wallabies have a remarkable reproduction cycle. Females give birth after a short gestation period of 28 - 34 days, to a single young that is hardly past the embryo stage. The newborn makes its way into the pouch and attaches itself onto a teat where it stays for many months and continues to develop and grow nourished by the mother's milk.
Females mate again whilst pregnant and the new embryo remains dormant until the previous young leaves the pouch.
As this cycle continues it is possible for a female to have one joey suckling in the pouch, a larger Joey outside the pouch and at the same time be carrying an undeveloped embryo. This is due to the female Wallaby's remarkable ability to produce two different types of milk at once!
One teat produces milk suitable for the young Joey growing in the pouch and the other produces milk suited to the nutritional needs of the older Joey outside the pouch.
白化小袋鼠很可愛!
但他們在野外生存的能力低.
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發表於 2013-1-4 06:16 PM
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