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What are Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies?
Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies are shy, elusive animals that live on rocky escarpments, using their long brushy tail and ridged feet to skilfully navigate the steep terrain. Once abundant throughout Eastern Australia, they are now endangered – living in small, isolated populations.
Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies are highly vulnerable to predation from foxes, disease and inbreeding. In small colonies, the few young who are born each year are so easily lost to predation or even misadventure. In the colonies where they are successfully recruited into adults, the numbers are not enough to replace aged adults and grow the colony. This is where small colonies can become stuck in an ‘extinction vortex’.
Why are Rock-wallabies so special?
- Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies have greyish-brown fur
- They use their arms to handle food, fight and climb
- Their thick, brushy tail helps them to balance and steer in mid-air as they leap about
- Joeys are raised in pouches until they are too heavy. They are then stashed away in rock crevices
- Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies have a distinctive white cheek stripe
- Also known as the small-eared Rock-wallaby, they have small, dark-coloured ears
- Strong, powerful legs help Rock-wallabies make acrobatic leaps in the air
- Fingerprint-like ridges and flexible feet help them to hop on near-vertical cliffs
Why are Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies so rare?
Introduced Species
Poor Habitat
Hunting
Local Catastrophes
Want to find out more?
Small, fragmented populations of Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies lie in rocky terrain along the east coast of Australia. There are three sub-groups: the Southern form in Victoria with an estimated 20-50 individuals, the Central form in south-eastern NSW with over 500, and the Northern ESU with less than 10,000 Rock-wallabies.
Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies live amongst complex rocky escarpment, boulder piles and rocky outcrops as they can navigate their ledges and hidey holes with more agility than their predators. They love north-facing escarpments, gorges and boulder piles, basking on sunny ledges in winter and cool caves in summer.
Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies feed on a variety of plants, including grasses, orchids, bark, fruits, flowers and ferns. As they are tied to their rocky habitat for protection, they have quite a generalist diet. They forage in a range of 5-25ha, depending on habitat type and richness, predation pressures and competition for food.
Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies are most active at dawn and dusk, retreating to rock crevices during the day. Female young take up nearby territory to their mothers, while young males will either disperse or hang around for a chance to become the dominant male.
