What's the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby??

When we take people on wildlife tours, we are often asked, "what's the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby?".

Although the answer given by many would be size (i.e. the kangaroos being bigger than wallabies), the answer isn't always that simple. Let me explain...



A red kangaroo

As a rule of thumb, the word kangaroo is usually used to refer to the larger large-footed hopping marsupials or macropods found in Australia, whereas the word wallaby is used to describe many of the smaller macropods. The word kangaroo can sometimes, and probably incorrectly, be used to describe the whole family of hopping marsupials or macropods - i.e. the kangaroo family (but it does sound better than macropods!). There are about 45 species of kangaroos and wallabies found in Australia, with two species also found in New Guinea.

Kangaroos are larger than wallabies, and wallabies are often more squat or solid - whereas kangaroos are not only larger but also longer and leaner. Kangaroos also have a distinctive black naked rhinarium - you know, the wet part of a dog's nose for example. The largest of the kangaroos is the red kangaroo - large males can weigh up to 80 kilograms. The other large kangaroos are the eastern grey and the western grey kangaroos. However, there are also tree-kangaroos - these are wallaby-sized kangaroos that live in trees, and there are rat-kangaroos which are small rat or guinea-pig sized kangaroos.

         

A young red-necked wallaby



On the other hand, there are numerous species of wallabies - each eeking out a niche in its particular habitat - whether rainforest, grasslands, alpine regions, rocky-cliff faces, etc. Wallabies makes up the majority of the macropod family - in fact, there are about 30 species of wallabies found in Australia - including rock wallabies, swamp wallabies, hare-wallabies and lots of other wallabies! And everybody knows that Australia's mighty rugby side is also called the wallabies (don't they?)!



a common wallaroo



Just to confuse the matter, there are also wallaroos - an animal that has some features of both wallaby and kangaroo. Most wallaroos are medium sized but one of these, the Antilopine wallaroo, grows to almost as large as the red kangaroo! Wallaroos also have a black naked rhinarium like kangaroos and come in all colours - red, grey, brown, black and various combinations and shades of these.

On Wildlife Explorer's Night Wildlife Safari you have the chance of seeing numerous types of wallabies, wallaroos and kangaroos in a single night. We also have the opportunity of seeing the more unusual types of kangaroos - the tree kangaroos or the musky rat-kangaroo for example. Please visit our website at http://www.wildlifeexplorer.com.au/ for more information.

Bye for now...

Images all courtesy of wikipedia.com

Wildlife spotting on the Atherton Tablelands

Here's a very brief look at some of the wildlife seen on the Atherton Tablelands, a mountainous area just inland from Cairns, Australia. This is a tiny excerpt from the result of only one afternoon/evening trip - the wildlife in the video include the eastern grey kangaroo, pretty-faced wallaby, common wallaroo, mareeba rock-wallaby, lumholtz tree-kangaroo, johnstone river snapping turtle, lemuroid ringtail possum, common ringtail possum, common brushtail possum, barn owl, dainty green tree-frog.



Stay-viewing - we'll be adding more video over time.

Rock Wallabies

Rock-wallabies are the mountain-goats of Australia! They live in rocky, mountainous country where they bound majestically from rock to rock.

There are 15 species of rock wallabies in Australia. Some are colourful, most are grey. They are small, fast and tend to hop with their small arms held out-stretched in front of them.

The rock wallabies have all been affected by loss of habitat and the introduction of feral animals such as foxes and goats, leading to some being declared endangered or vulnerable.

The species in these photos is the Mareeba Rock Wallaby, one of the nine Eastern Queenland Rock Wallabies. On Wildlife Explorer's tours we see them on both the Night Wildlife Safari and the Tropical Wildlife Trail, mainly at two main locations, one of which is private land at Granite Gorge where these images are from. For many years these rock-wallabies have been hand fed so are very tame - as you can see!

They sometimes even live in the low-hanging trees - tree-wallabies!

Visit Wildlife Explorer's Picasa Web Album for more images. See you soon.

Beautiful Birds

Here are some photos of some beautiful birds we've seen recently:

This is the Woompoo Fruit Dove - a large bird of the Australian tropical rainforests that is often heard but is difficult to see amongst the foilage. The above is actually of two birds that were feeding on small fruits that can be seen in the photo. They are multi coloured with various shades of green, blue, purple and yellow.

This is an Azure Kingfisher - magnificently coloured small bird that inhabits small creeks and other freshwater bodies where it hunts for food. Found across the north and east of Australia.

A red-tailed black cockatoo in sillouette against an overcast sky. This is the queensland subspecies of the red-tailed cockatoo and quite common locally. They are usually seen in vocal flocks, are seed eaters and live in hollows in trees, usually eucalyptus.

This is a male Australian King Parrot foraging for seeds and fruits in the rainforest canopy. A medium sized parrot and found down the east-coast of Australia.

This is a Noisy Pitta - a terrible photo but I'm happy to have actually gotten one. They are more colourful than this photo shows and live on the rainforest floor moving with a curious hopping motion.

Stay tuned for more...

Wildlife Explorer

Wet Season is here!

The wet season has finally arrived and has made the region come alive - frogs are everywhere! We've managed to see a couple of species that are threatened, including the Australian Lacelid and the Green-eyed tree frog, as well as numerous other tree frog species.

On our recent trips we have been lucky enough to see some great wildlife - it's just difficult to get a photo of all of them - as any wildlife photographer, amateur or professional, would know!

Kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos.

In the dryer country the rain has turned the previously brown grass into a bright green. This makes it easier to spot the various types of wallabies, wallaroos and kangaroo that inhabit these areas. Mareeba Rock Wallabies have been seen in quite good numbers - and these are the wild type, not the hand-fed variety that you often see on the web. They are quite common in this area but not easily seen around the dry, rocky areas of the Mareeba region. Because I'm yet to get a decent photo of one I have provided a link to the Mareeba Rock Wallabies entry in Wikipedia - Click here.

We've spotted the usual large numbers of Agile Wallabies but also many Wallaroos - many of the females with joeys out of the pouch. The male Wallaroos vie with the Red Kanagaroo for the title of the largest marsupial mammal and can reach weights exceeding 70kg / 154lbs! They have a distinctive hairless nose as shown in this photo below.

courtesy: http://www.rootourism.com/

Tropical Possums.
We've also seen a number of tropical possums species - these are all rare due the restrictive nature of their habitat, and are not found in zoos anywhere in the world. We have been lucky enough to continue our success at seeing the Lemuroid Ringtail Possum regularly and in good numbers.

This species is suseptible to climate change and, according to the Wet Tropics Management Authority:

"the lemuroid ringtail possum is found in two distinct populations, the southern in the Atherton Tableland and the northern in the Carbine Tableland. In 2008 scientists confirmed that there had been no records of the northern population since late 2005.

Some individuals in this population have an unusual white colour morph and although not albino, they are still the same species. Steve and his team immediately undertook intensive searches for the northern population of lemuroid ringtail possums. Initial surveys reported no sightings. However,a refugal area was discovered in 2009 with at least a few individuals. Their dramatic decline in range is possibly due to climate change and they are now extremely vulnerable."

Read More.

Welcome to Australian Wildlife Explorer's new blog

Welcome to our blog.

We are a wildlife tour operator based in Kuranda, a village in the rainforest in the far north of Queensland in Australia. We take guests from all over the world to see our unique animals in their natural habitat and thought this would be a great way to keep a record of the wildlife seen on our tours.

Some of the animals seen are also rare, threatened or endangered - such as the southern cassowary, northern quoll, spotted-tailed quoll, northern bettong, various possum species, and a few species of frogs to name a few - it is our hope that our records of these particular sightings might benefit researchers and authorities responsible for their protection and/or recovery.

Please bear with us as we get the blog started and we hope that you follow our journey. In the meantime please feel free to visit our website and our Picasa gallery which we will also add to as soon as we can...

Best wishes,

Wildlife Explorer