Mammals on Monday 6 - Swamp Wallaby

The Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) is a common Wallaby down the entire east coast of Australia and around to southwestern Victoria.  These animals were photographed at Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria.

The Swamp Wallaby has an average length is 76 cm for males, and 70 cm for females (excluding the tail). The tail in both sexes is approximately equal in length to the rest of the body. Average weight for males is 17 kg,  with females averaging 13 kg.

Although not a difficult animal to see, I did observe one individual chewing on bones - a leg bone of some form and a rib - and this does not seem to be a widely recorded behaviour in marsupials.  Technically this is called osteophagia and has been observed in a range of herbivorous species, but I cant find reference to it happening in herbivorous marsupials. 

Osteophagia is thought to act as a kind of 'vitamin supplement' where an animals diet is lacking in minerals - normally calcium and phosphorus.  Given that the vegetation in the area that the pictures were taken is basically growing in very sandy soil, I see no reason why this explanation should not apply to this individual.

The biologist in me is fascinated by these pictures, and the comedian in me thinks it looks like the Wallaby is playing a flute, brushing it teeth or on the phone!  You can identify with which ever aspect of my personality you choose!

If you have a close look at the images you can see the serious looking claws on this animal, and that the wallaby in the third and forth images has lost a chunk of its ear.  I suspect these two observations may be in some way connected!

Cheers SM