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The Tammar Wallaby (Macropus eugenii), also known as the Dama Wallaby or Darma Wallaby, is a small member of the kangaroo
Kangaroo

A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the Red Kangaroo, the Antilopine Kangaroo, and the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo of the Macropus genus....
 family and is the type species for research on kangaroos and marsupial
Marsupial

Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by a distinctive Pouch , in which females carry their young through early infancy....
s.

It is found on offshore islands on the South Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
n and Western Australian coast. It is classified as vermin on Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island is Australia's third largest island - after Tasmania and Melville Island, Northern Territory. It is 112 kilometres southwest of Adelaide at the entrance of Gulf Saint Vincent....
, where it seasonally breeds in large numbers and damages the echidna
Echidna

Echidnas , also known as spiny anteaters, are four Extant taxon mammal species belonging to the Tachyglossidae Family of the monotremes....
 habitat on the island.

The Tammar Wallaby was seen on West Wallabi Island
West Wallabi Island

West Wallabi Island is an island in the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, located in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of mainland Australia....
 in the Houtman Abrolhos
Houtman Abrolhos

The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at , it lies about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia....
 off Western Australia
Western Australia

Western Australia is a States and territories of Australia occupying the entire western third of the Australia . The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state....
 by survivors of the 1628 Batavia
Batavia (ship)

Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . She was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and had 24 cast-iron cannons. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors....
 shipwreck
Shipwreck

A shipwreck is the remains of a ship that has wrecked, either in it having sunk or been Beaching . A shipwreck can refer to a wrecked ship or to the event that caused the wreck, such as the striking of something that causes the ship to sink, the stranding of the ship on rocks, land or shoal, or the destruction of the ship at sea by vio...
, and recorded by Francisco Pelsart in his 1629 Ongeluckige Voyagie.






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The Tammar Wallaby (Macropus eugenii), also known as the Dama Wallaby or Darma Wallaby, is a small member of the kangaroo
Kangaroo

A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the Red Kangaroo, the Antilopine Kangaroo, and the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo of the Macropus genus....
 family and is the type species for research on kangaroos and marsupial
Marsupial

Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by a distinctive Pouch , in which females carry their young through early infancy....
s.

It is found on offshore islands on the South Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
n and Western Australian coast. It is classified as vermin on Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island is Australia's third largest island - after Tasmania and Melville Island, Northern Territory. It is 112 kilometres southwest of Adelaide at the entrance of Gulf Saint Vincent....
, where it seasonally breeds in large numbers and damages the echidna
Echidna

Echidnas , also known as spiny anteaters, are four Extant taxon mammal species belonging to the Tachyglossidae Family of the monotremes....
 habitat on the island.

The Tammar Wallaby was seen on West Wallabi Island
West Wallabi Island

West Wallabi Island is an island in the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, located in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of mainland Australia....
 in the Houtman Abrolhos
Houtman Abrolhos

The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at , it lies about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia....
 off Western Australia
Western Australia

Western Australia is a States and territories of Australia occupying the entire western third of the Australia . The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state....
 by survivors of the 1628 Batavia
Batavia (ship)

Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . She was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and had 24 cast-iron cannons. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors....
 shipwreck
Shipwreck

A shipwreck is the remains of a ship that has wrecked, either in it having sunk or been Beaching . A shipwreck can refer to a wrecked ship or to the event that caused the wreck, such as the striking of something that causes the ship to sink, the stranding of the ship on rocks, land or shoal, or the destruction of the ship at sea by vio...
, and recorded by Francisco Pelsart in his 1629 Ongeluckige Voyagie. This represents the first recorded sighting of a macropod
Macropod

Macropods are marsupials belonging to the family Macropodidae, which includes kangaroos, wallaby, tree-kangaroos, pademelons, and several others....
 by Europeans, and probably also the first sighting of an Australian mammal.

The Tammar Wallaby has three subspecies:
  • M. e. eugenii from mainland South Australia - this subspecies was driven to extinction on the mainland because of land clearing and predation by cats and foxes. However, they had been introduced to Kawau Island in New Zealand in the 19th century. This island population is considered a pest species in New Zealand, but it has provided an ideal source of animals for reintroduction to their native habitat.
  • M. e. derbianus which inhabits Western Australia (and some islands).
  • M. e. decres, the Darma or Dama Wallaby, is the population on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.


This wallaby
Wallaby

A wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod . It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name....
's small size (approx 8kg, similar to a large cat) and ease of keeping in captivity makes it a popular zoo animal.

Australian scientists, lead by Dr. Ben Cocks, have found a compound in the milk of the Tammar Wallaby called AGG01
AGG01

AGG01 is the tentative name of a new peptide antibiotic discovered in the breast milk of the Tammar wallaby, reportedly one hundred times more powerful than penicillin....
 which has the potential to be a new and powerful form of antibiotic. AGG01 is a protein and in laboratory testing AGG01 has been 100 times more effective than penicillin
Penicillin

Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They are Beta-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms....
, killing over 99% of the pathogenic bacteria (both gram-positive and gram–negative) and fungus that it was incubated with, including Salmonella
Salmonella

Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped Gram-negative enterobacteriaceae that causes typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and the foodborne illness salmonellosis....
, Proteus vulgaris
Proteus vulgaris

Proteus vulgaris is a rod-shaped, Gram negative bacterium that inhabits the intestinal tracts of humans and animals. It can be found in soil, water and fecal matter....
 and golden staphylococcus.

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