Unidentified wallabies are tree kangaroos (or Guidefellows). Tree kangaroo - an amazing animal Description of the tree kangaroo

These are very cute and interesting animals, but don’t let their cute appearance fool you. Some species of wallabies are not much different from bears. Oh, how beautiful Mother Nature and her creations are!

There are 6 species belonging to the genus of Tree kangaroos - wallabies. Of these, New Guinea is inhabited by the bear wallaby, the Matchisha wallaby, which has a subspecies of the Goodfellow wallaby, and the Doria wallaby. In Australian Queensland there are Lumholtz's wallaby (bungari), Bennett's wallaby, or tharibina.

Their original habitat was New Guinea, but now wallabies are also found in Australia. Tree kangaroos live in tropical forests of mountainous regions, at altitudes from 450 to 3000m. above sea level. The body size of the animal is 52-81 cm, the tail is from 42 to 93 cm long. Wallabies weigh, depending on the species, from 7.7 to 10 kg for males and from 6.7 to 8.9 kg. females.

Wallabies are covered with long fur, soft or coarse. Color depends on specific type. Thus, the bear tree wallaby has a brown, black or gray saddle coat on its back and a red or white belly and sides.

Doria and Bennett wallabies have brown markings on their fur. At the same time, Bennett's wallaby has a small “bang” on its forehead, raised fur on its back, and a red patch of fur near its tail. Lumholtz's wallaby is contrastingly colored: black legs, gray or red back, white belly.

Wallabies live in flocks, in which for one male there are several females with offspring. Sometimes related males can form groups to confront aggressive outside males. In Lumholtz's tree kangaroos, peace in the flock depends on the number of males: with one male, the females live quietly together, but when a second one appears, battles begin.

Matchisha's wallaby is the most colorful kangaroo: the back is red-brown, red, and the rest of the body is yellow. Its variety, the Goodfellow wallaby, has yellow stripes on its body and tail.

The number of tree kangaroos is monitored by conservation authorities in Australia and New Guinea. Lumholtz's, Bennett's, Doria's, Matchish's and bear's wallabies are listed as rare and endangered. Protected areas have been created to preserve them.

Tree kangaroos have strong front and rear legs with curved claws, and pads on the feet. The tail serves them for support and balance. The animals are very mobile, deftly climb trees, can jump up to 18 m down, and up to 10 m from tree to tree.

Wallabies are nocturnal animals that sleep in trees during the day. After dark, wallabies turn tail first and descend to the ground, where they move by jumping, arching their tail. At night, kangaroos look for food in the form of fruits, ferns, leaves and shoots of plants.

Wallabies can mate all year round. Kangaroos carry their babies for 32 days. The newborn (usually alone) immediately crawls into the mother's brood pouch. There, its development continues for about 300 days, but the baby kangaroo suckles its mother for about 100 more days after leaving the pouch.

Wallabies are highly tamed. Depending on the species, their lifespan is 14-20 years.

An amazing animal lives in Australia - the wallaby. It can regulate its own body temperature, jump from tree to tree after 9 meters and prolong pregnancy. Scientists continue to study tree kangaroos, discovering new amazing facts about these cute and cute animals.

Appearance

These animals belong to the class of mammals, a genus in the kangaroo family. At first glance, the tree kangaroo is very reminiscent of a small bear, because it is completely covered with thick brown hair, only in places (the belly and shoulders) it has a bright red or yellow color. But, looking closer, you realize that this is an amazing, rare animal.

The tree kangaroo moves easily and carefree through trees and vines with the help of flexible claws. Despite the fact that these unusual animals have a decent mass, they are surprisingly agile and dexterous. And what kind of jumpers they are, there’s nothing to say. They can easily jump from tree to tree at a distance of up to 10 meters. Needless to say, they do not descend from trees, but jump. Even a height of 20 meters does not scare them. The tree kangaroo, a photo of which you can see in the article, is not often found in nature, but if you are lucky enough to cross paths with it, then try to make friends. These animals are very friendly and will never attack or offend.

Features of tree kangaroos

It is not immediately possible to distinguish a female and a male from each other, since their sizes are almost the same. The tree kangaroo in Australia ranges in height from 70 to 90 cm, rarely up to one meter, and weighs about 9-15 kg. Sometimes there are bogatyrs weighing up to 20 kg.

Animals live in trees. Tropical ones are especially loved by the females of this species. They choose trees that are denser and spend most of their life on them alone, less often huddling in small flocks. Walabi, tree kangaroos, have the ability to maintain their temperature at normal levels in any heat. This amazing ability allows animals with thick fur to feel great in hot Australia.

The tree kangaroo drinks a lot of water, eats leaves, and is very fond of passion fruit and eucalyptus leaves. If animals are driven into captivity, they are fed corn, jacket potatoes, various fruits and eggs.

Lifestyle

In Australia there is a legend that once upon a time a male kangaroo attacked a child, and since then the locals began hunting these animals, so they became unsociable and hid as far as possible from humans. It is rare to find them even in deep thicket; they move almost silently, and also blend in with the color of the trees.

The tree kangaroo sleeps during the day and goes out to hunt at night in search of plant food. Animals are attached to their habitat, protect it from predators and do not allow anyone to approach it. On average, a kangaroo lives about 20 years and during its entire life it may not even change trees, only descending from them to drink and get food.

Places of distribution

Most often, the tree kangaroo is found in the tropics and rain forests of Australia. It is rare to encounter this unusual animal in the mountains or on the plains, however, this does happen.

About the mating season

Wallabies do not have a mating season, so they reproduce throughout the whole year. It is extremely rare for females to give birth to more than one baby. In the first years, the baby does not want to move even one step away from his mother. Pregnancy in females lasts no more than a year. Having been born, the cub immediately moves into the pouch and remains there for one year or more, feeding on its mother’s milk.

Unbelievable but true

Not long ago, scientists discovered a unique fact: a female tree kangaroo is capable of extending her pregnancy in case of danger. It happens that the embryo dies in the womb, and then another one comes to replace it.

Australian biologists have hypothesized that the tree kangaroo could help humanity in the event of a catastrophe, namely global warming. The stomachs of livestock, such as bulls and sheep, release large amounts of methane into the air. And indeed it is. And the stomach of the tree kangaroo, for reasons still unknown to science, is capable of processing methane. Obviously, this happens with the help of bacteria. If scientists study these bacteria in the near future, they will be able to use them to purify the air on Earth.

Needless to say, these rare animals are closely monitored by environmental services; they are doing their best to increase the population of amazing creatures.

The tree kangaroo is a mammal that looks very similar to a bear. They live on the islands of New Guinea and some regions of Australia. Average duration The lifespan of such animals is 20 years.

Most tree kangaroos live in tropical forests. They can also be found in mountainous areas. Tree kangaroos spend most of their lives on tree branches. They descend from them only to eat and go to water. In this way they hide from their enemies. These include people and some predators (dingoes, pythons, etc.). Ordinary people They don't hunt kangaroos. The danger to tree kangaroos comes from various tribes that are not interested in the population of these animals. Kangaroos themselves do not pose a threat to any other animal species; they live peacefully among themselves. Tree kangaroos are nocturnal animals. During the daytime they prefer to sleep. In total, such kangaroos sleep about 15 hours a day.

Description of the tree kangaroo

The colors of these animals deserve special attention. In the upper part of the kangaroo, dark brown shades predominate. The lower part of the body is characterized by a lighter color. Tree kangaroos have very soft pads and strong claws on their feet. Thanks to them, they can freely move through the trees and jump from branch to branch.

The muzzles of such kangaroos are very different from those that we are used to seeing in ordinary kangaroos. They are not so elongated. Their ears are also very different, they are more rounded than those of other kangaroos. Externally, female tree kangaroos are practically no different from males.

Diet and lifestyle of tree kangaroos

Tree kangaroos can live alone or as part of a small group. As a rule, this is a female with a male and their offspring.

Tree kangaroos can breed at any time of the year. No specific conditions are required for this. The pregnancy of a female kangaroo lasts 32 days. A born baby lives in its mother's pouch for one year. During this entire period, the baby is attached to her nipple, from which it receives milk.

The number of kangaroos is becoming smaller and smaller every year. In order to preserve this species of animals, all possible measures are taken and protected areas are created. Tree kangaroos are among the rarest animals in the world.

Goodfellow's tree kangaroos have an appearance and lifestyle that is unusual for ordinary kangaroos.

These animals have a small, rounded head, soft chestnut fur and short hind limbs. Goodfellow kangaroos are excellent tree climbers.

According to these characteristics, arboreal species differ from their relatives.

Among other tree-climbing species, Goodfellow's kangaroos are the most beautiful. This feature highlighted by biologist Tim Flannery, who devoted many years of his life to studying tree kangaroos in New Guinea. In this regard, the scientist named this species Dendrolagus goodfellowi pulcherrimus, which means “the most attractive.”

There are 20 species of tree kangaroos, with 10 of them living in the tropical forests of New Guinea. They live in both plains and highlands. Two species are native to the northern part of the Australian mainland. But Goodfellow's kangaroos chose the highest places for themselves - impenetrable foggy forests in the southeastern part of New Guinea. These forests grow on the Owen-Stanley mountain range, whose height reaches 700-2500 meters.

Due to the fact that Goodfellow kangaroos lead an arboreal lifestyle, they have not only an unusual appearance, but also a behavior pattern that is unusual for other kangaroos. Their hind legs are much shorter than those of ordinary kangaroos, but the front legs are more powerful and have wide soles and curved claws, with which they cling to branches.

Goodfellow kangaroos have a fluffy tail, the length of which reaches 80 centimeters; thanks to this tail, the animals balance and make huge jumps over a distance of about 10 meters.

Goodfellow's tree kangaroos are very hardy animals that have strong bones. Fleeing from its main enemy - the New Guinea harpy, the kangaroo, without hesitation, jumps from a 20-meter height to the ground, and at the same time remains completely unharmed. But on land these animals become clumsy and clumsy. On the surface of the earth, they cannot make more than 2 jumps in a row, but move in small steps, while jumping and stretching their body forward, since the heavy tail pulls the body back.

They only have to come down to the ground when they are hungry: in addition to leaves, Goodfellow's tree kangaroos feed on grass, flowers and rare cereals, which the animals find on the outskirts of the forest. Goodfellow's stomach contains special bacteria that are involved in the digestion process and help cope with the processing of large amounts of cellulose consumed overnight when eating plants.

When Goodfellow's kangaroos return to their natural environment, all their movements become dexterous again. Goodfellow can climb up a tree trunk in just a couple of seconds by wrapping his front paws around the trunk and pushing off with his back paws, thus quickly moving forward. Because of their ability to live in trees, Goodfellow's tree kangaroos are often called marsupials."

Residents of Australia and New Guinea, tree kangaroos are both a little-studied and very interesting species. Unlike other related species, true to their name, tree kangaroos spend most of their lives in the canopy of trees, where they can do everything from eat to sleep. For this herbivorous species, there are many subspecies according to their habitat regions and some characteristics appearance. Some of them are now under threat of extinction and require protection, especially from human activity.

The body length of the tree kangaroo ranges from 1.3 to 1.8 m, of which the body and head are 50-80 cm, and the tail is approximately the same in length - 50-90 cm. The weight of adult individuals reaches 5-18 kg . The tree kangaroo's body is black or gray-brown above, and predominantly white below.

The tree kangaroo differs from its terrestrial relatives by its short hind legs with wide soles. In addition, its paws end in long curved claws, with which the animal clings to tree trunks. The ears of this species are rounded, the muzzle is shortened, especially in comparison with. The tail is pubescent and serves as a balancer and rudder during jumping. When moving, the tree kangaroo does not hold its body vertically, like its terrestrial relative, but horizontally.

The tree kangaroo feeds on a variety of food, which it finds both on the surface of the earth and in trees. Its diet includes leaves. But like food with low nutritional value and low calorie content, it requires very large volumes. The tree kangaroo eats foliage, attracting branches to itself and gnawing them; it acts very skillfully: with its paws the animal is able to make movements in the wrists, bend the fingers and tear off individual leaves with their tips. The favorite foods of this type of kangaroo are ferns, wild berries and fruits.

The tree kangaroo lives in tropical forests on the island of New Guinea (Chendrawasih Peninsula, in the Indonesian province of Western New Guinea and the rain forests of Papua New Guinea), in the northeast of the Australian state of Queensland (Cape York Peninsula) and on the islands that are nearby. Most species prefer mountainous areas to live, although some are also found in flat areas.

Common types of tree kangaroo

The genus of tree kangaroos is represented the following types:

• Bennett's kangaroo (Dendrolagus bennettianus) - lives in north-east Queensland.

• Doria kangaroo (Dendrolagus dorianus) is widespread in New Guinea, where it lives at altitudes from 600 to 3600 m. One of the largest species.

• Goodfellow's kangaroo (Dendrolagus goodfellowi) is a resident of central and southeastern New Guinea. Endangered.

• The gray-haired tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus inustus) is an inhabitant of the north and west of the island of New Guinea, and the islands that are located nearby. A species that has been little studied to date.

• Lumholtzi's Kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) - Found in north-east Queensland.

• Matches' kangaroo (Dendrolagus matschiei) is common on the Huon Peninsula in Papua New Guinea.

• Dendrolagus mbais is a resident of the highland regions of western New Guinea.

• Dendrolagus pulcherrimus - found in the Torricelli Mountains of Papua New Guinea, in the Foggia Mountains in Western New Guinea.
• The Papuan tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus scottae) is an inhabitant of the Torricelli Mountains. Endangered.
• Plains tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus spadix) - common in western New Guinea.
• Dendrolagus stellarum - range includes highlands in western New Guinea.
• The bear kangaroo (Dendrolagus ursinus) is an inhabitant of the Chendravasih Peninsula.

In this species, sexual dimorphism is not expressed and differences in the appearance of males and females are not observed.

The tree kangaroo lives in New Guinea and northeastern Australia (Queensland). Its favorite habitats are mountain tropical forests, which are located at altitudes up to 3000 m above sea level. Such regions are usually difficult to reach for scientists and their observations of animals, so this is very in an interesting way Not much information is known today.

True to its name, the tree kangaroo spends most of its life in trees. Conveniently located in the forks of the branches, the animals rest, chew food and sleep. Kangaroos go in search of food at night, one at a time or in small groups (3-4 individuals). They are distinguished from other kangaroos by their body structure, in which everything is aimed at making life easier in the trees. The hind legs are short and have long claws. The tree kangaroo does not jump on the surface of the earth, but runs. The pelvis is formed so that the hind legs move independently of each other - ground kangaroos do not have such capabilities. Climbing out into the trees, the tree kangaroo clings tightly to the bark with the claws of its front paws, and then pulls up its hind paws in turn.

In the rainforests of Australia, throughout the year, the tree kangaroo can easily find the required amount of plant food for itself, therefore the mating season has no restrictions and mating occurs all year round. The male kangaroo of this species, when he meets a female, begins to make sounds that are similar to a chicken clucking and slaps her on the head. If the female turns away, he strokes her tail. After a series of such courtships, mating occurs. If several males are interested in a female at once, then fights often take place between them, which are similar to real boxing. But kangaroos, unlike human athletes, do not observe proper ethics and are capable, for example, of attacking from behind without warning. Pregnancy lasts only one month and ends with the birth of one baby. The newborn climbs into the mother's pouch and sucks very tightly to the nipple. After milk feeding ends, the baby spends some more time with the female and hides in her pouch from danger.

Due to massive deforestation, the population size of certain species of tree kangaroo is noticeably declining. And species such as the Goodfellow and Doria kangaroos, inhabitants of New Guinea, are also objects of hunting. For these reasons, some of the tree kangaroo species currently require protection and conservation.

• In Australia, the tree kangaroo is called "bungaree".
• Residents of New Guinea hunt tree kangaroos for the purpose of obtaining its meat. Hunters climb trees and try to catch the animal by its tail.
• The tree kangaroo is capable of jumping from a height of up to 18 meters.
• The tree kangaroo does not jump on the surface of the earth, but runs. Short hind legs and long claws help the animal to deftly climb trees.