More than thirty types of wallabies live in Australia, although the Parma wallaby is the only one unique to New South Wales. All wallabies are related to the kangaroo and all are marsupials. This means that they have a pouch on their stomachs where their young is carried for months after they are born. The female parma wallaby carries her young inside of her for only five to six weeks, then it is born about the size of a grain of rice, still hairless and blind. It then crawls up into the pouch where it is kept safe for months while it completes maturing. Strong muscles in the pouch keep the pouch closed and the baby wallaby, called a joey, from falling out. Wallabies reach sexual maturity sometime between 1 and 2 years old. From then on, a female wallaby is rarely without a young wallaby by her side.
The Parma wallaby is of the phylum Chordata, class Mamalia, and order Marsupialia. The Parma wallaby is a part of the family Macropodidae, which means "big foot", and its genera and species are wallabia parma. The Parma wallaby does have greatly elongated hind feet, and small front ones, giving it an odd way of moving. When it is moving quickly, the Parma wallaby hops only on its hind feet, never touching the ground with the front paws. When hopping slowly, they may hop only 1.2 to 1.9 meters, but at increased speeds, they can hop greater than 9 meters in one leap.
The deciduous forests of Australia can get very hot, but the wallabies cannot sweat to cool off like humans can. All animals in the kangaroo family have no sweat glands. Instead, the wallabies will lick themselves, or in emergencies they will pant. Wallabies do not normally do either unless the temperature is extremely hot, because the wallabies have to use as little water as possible.
The Parma wallaby was once thought to be extinct, in the late 1800's, until a small group of them was found about 50 miles from Sydney in 1967.
The average head and body length of a Parma wallaby is 424-527mm, the tail length is 416-544mm. Their weight is normally between 2.6 to 5.9kg. Males and females are about the same size.
"Forest". The World Book Encyclopedia.1995. 48th edition.
"Marsupialia; Macropodidae". Walker's Mammals of the World. 1995. 3rd edition.
"Oxford Atlas of the World". 1995. 3rd edition.
"Tree". The World Book Encyclopedia. 1995. 48th edition.
"Wallaby". Grolier's Amazing World of Animals. 1972. 3rd edition.
"Wallaby". Colliers Encyclopedia. 1989. 40th Edition.
"Wallaby". Academic American Encyclopedia. 1988. 5th edition.
"Wallaby". Children's Britannica. 1890.
"Wallaby". Encyclopedia Americana. 1989. 55th edition.
"Wallaby". National Geographic Book of Mammals.
"Wallaby". Wildlife Encyclopedia. 1980.
Bergamini, David and the editors of Life magazine. The Land and Wildlife of Australia.1964, Time Inc.
Darling, Kathy. Kangaroos on Location. 1993, Lethrop, Lee, & Shepard Books.
Djugurba: Tales from the Spirit Time. 1974, Griffin Press, Adelaide.
Evans, Howard E. and Evans, Mary A. Australia: A Natural History.1983, Smithsonian Institution Press.
"Myths and Legends". http://www.rdrop.com/users/malura/myths.html. May 8, 1997.
"Wallabies". http://mac-ra26.sci.deakin.edu.au/mammals/wallabies.html. April 7, 1997.