Distribution of the tammar, Macropus eugenii, and the relationships of populations as determined by cranial morphometrics

Abstract

Apparently once widespread throughout dense thickets in south-western Australia, the tammar is now much restricted in its distribution. On mainland Australia, isolated populations still persist in Western Australia, but in South Australia, where there is little remaining evidence to confirm that it extended beyond Eyre Peninsula, the wallaby is probably close to extinction. All originally recorded populations on five islands in Western Australia remain, but in South Australia all natural island populations, other than those on Kangaroo I., appear to be extinct. Morphometric analyses of crania representative of most known populations provide a means of assessing their relationships. Canonical variate analysis, the derivation of Mahalanobis distances and subsequent calculation of minimum spanning trees supported the existence of affinities within three major regional groups-a group predominantly from Western Australia, a group from Kangaroo and Greenly Is, South Australia, and a group from New Zealand-all apparently related via a population from Eyre Peninsula, presumably representative of a former widespread mainland population. By cranial criteria, feral tammars established in New Zealand are South Australian in origin although probably not introduced from Kangaroo I.

Identifying palaeo-environments and changes in Aboriginal subsistence from dual-patterned faunal assemblages, south-western Australia

“…layers 6 and 8). Poole et al, 1991;Strahan, 1995) or in thicket undergrowth in wet environments surrounding wetlands and in tall forest (Setonix; Hayward et al, 2004). Most of the other small marsupials considered here also require shelter from predators, so M. eugenii and Setonix appear to be distinct because they require closed canopies for shelter.…”

Ventilatory frequency as a measure of the response of tammar wallabies (Macropus eugenii) to the odour of potential predators

“…The tammar wallaby is a medium-sized Australian macropodid marsupial with disjunct populations in southern Western Australia and South Australia (Poole et al 1991;Hinds 2008). Its distribution has decreased significantly on the mainland since European settlement, and feral predators are believed to have made a significant contribution to the disappearance of many populations (Calaby and Gigg 1989;Johnson et al 1989;Smith and Hinds 1995;Morris et al 1998).…”

FOXA1 and SOX9 Expression in the Developing Urogenital Sinus of the Tammar Wallaby <b><i>(Macropus eugenii)</i></b>

“…Females were checked regularly for the presence of a pouch young. Where the exact date of birth of the pouch young was unknown, the age was estimated (± 2 days) from growth curves based on head length measurements [Poole et al, 1991]. Pouch young aged below day 50 pp were killed by decapitation, whilst pouch young aged above day 50 were overdosed with sodium pentobarbitone (60 mg/kg i.p.)…”