Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby Husbandry Manual - Marsupial and ...

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The yellow-footed rock wallaby is appropriately named for its distinctive color and agile
behavior - yellow (xantho) footed (pus) rock (petro) weasel (gale) (Sharp, 1994).
Anyone who has seen this wallaby is impressed by its beauty. Its distinctive markings make them
one of the “most beautifully adorned” (Sharp, 1994) and “most charismatic” (Sharp, 1998)
members of the macropod family. Others call it "One of the most beautiful of Australia's species
of wallaby" (Lim et al, 1987) and "the prettiest and most colorful kangaroo of them all"
(Domico, 1993).
Famous for his 1863 work The Mammals of Australia, John Gould was so taken by the original
two specimens sent to the British Museum of Natural History that he referred to the yellowfooted
rock wallaby as "one of the finest species of the form yet discovered. Its large size and
rich color render it very conspicuous" (McKay et al, 1997). He also stated "of so fine a species I
have considered it desirable to give two illustrations." He then went on to encourage the
acquisition of living specimens for menageries and additional examples for museums (Lim et
al,1987).
The fur, soft, thick and long, is fawn-colored with a dark mid-dorsal stripe, distinct white muzzle
stripe, a reddish-brown patch behind the arm, a buffy-white side stripe and brown and white
crescent marks on its flanks. The closely-related Petrogale x. celeris lacks this white hip patch
(Le Seouf, 1926). The forearms, hind legs and feet are a rich orange. The ears are very large with
yellow hair covering the outside. The brownish-orange tail has a distinctive series of dark brown
rings ending in a dark brown bush. The tail coloring is quite varied between individuals, some
even have white tail tips. The individuals in the northern Flinders Ranges tend to be more vividly
colored then those in the southern ranges. Surprisingly, this brilliant coloration provides good
camouflage against the patches of sunlight and shadow on the red rocks of their habitat
(Kennedy, 1990; Lim et al, 1987), and may be considered as evidence of disruptive coloration in
a macropodid species (Croft, 1996).
One of the largest of the rock wallabies, the yellow-footed rock wallaby weighs between 6 - 9 kg
according to Sharp, 1998, and as large as 11 kg (Bach, 1998; Lim et al, 1992). Adult males
weigh an average of 8 kg and adult females weighing an average of 6 kg (Lim et al, 1987). The
adult body size ranges between 480-650 mm with the ringed tail 570 – 700 mm in length (Bach,
1998). Males attain more developed forearms and shoulder musculature than do females (Lim et
al, 1987).
Birth weight range is between 460 – 572 mg (Bach, 1998). Although adults exhibit sexual
dimorphism in body size and weight, this dimorphism is not significant until young are more
than one year old and weigh approximately 3 kg (Robinson, 1994).
The fecal pellets are long and cylindrical with a diameter of about one centimeter, tapered to one
end (Lapidge, 1997), forming a pointed "tail" seldom found in other species' pellets (Lim et al,
1992). Because their molars do not grind their food as finely as more specialized animals the
pellets have a much coarser texture, due to the loosely packed and coarsely textured plant
material, than those of other mammals in their habitat. The hard, shiny black mucus coat, typical
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