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Wallaroo

 
Wallaroo

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Wallaroo



 
 
A wallaroo is any of three closely related species of moderately large macropod
Macropod

Macropods are marsupials belonging to the family Macropodidae, which includes kangaroos, wallaby, tree-kangaroos, pademelons, and several others....
, intermediate in size between 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....
s and the wallabies
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....
. The name "wallaroo" is a portmanteau of wallaby and kangaroo. In general, a large, slim-bodied macropod of the open plains is called a "kangaroo"; a small to medium-sized one, particularly if it is relatively thick-set, is a "wallaby": most wallaroos are only a little smaller than a kangaroo, fairly thickset, and are found in open country.






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A wallaroo is any of three closely related species of moderately large macropod
Macropod

Macropods are marsupials belonging to the family Macropodidae, which includes kangaroos, wallaby, tree-kangaroos, pademelons, and several others....
, intermediate in size between 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....
s and the wallabies
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....
. The name "wallaroo" is a portmanteau of wallaby and kangaroo. In general, a large, slim-bodied macropod of the open plains is called a "kangaroo"; a small to medium-sized one, particularly if it is relatively thick-set, is a "wallaby": most wallaroos are only a little smaller than a kangaroo, fairly thickset, and are found in open country. All share a particular habit of stance: wrists raised, elbows tucked close into the body, and shoulders thrown back, and all have a large, black-skinned rhinarium
Rhinarium

The rhinarium is the wet, naked surface around the nostrils of the nose in most mammals. Colloquially it might be called a "wet snout".Mammals with rhinariums tend to have a stronger sense of olfaction, and the loss of the rhinarium in the haplorrhine primates is related to their decreased reliance on olfaction, being associated with o...
.

The best-known species is Macropus robustus, which is known as the Eastern Wallaroo
Eastern Wallaroo

The Eastern Wallaroo , also known as the Common Wallaroo, the Hill Wallaroo or the Euro, is a large, variable species of macropod found throughout much of the Australian mainland....
, Common Wallaroo or just Wallaroo on the slopes of the Great Dividing Range
Great Dividing Range

The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australia's most substantial mountain range and the 4th longest in the world. The range stretches more than 3,500 km from Dauan_Island,_Queensland off the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through New South Wales, then into Victoria...
 (which runs for more than 3,000 km around the eastern and south-eastern coast of 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....
), and as the Euro in most of the rest of the continent. There are four subspecies
Subspecies

In biology, subspecies is the taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a species. A subspecies is a taxonomic group which is less distinct than the Common descent or species from which it originates....
: the Eastern Wallaroo and the Euro, which are both widespread, and two of more restricted range, one from Barrow Island, the other from the Kimberley
Kimberley region of Western Australia

The Kimberley is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northern part of Western Australia, bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert and Tanami Desert Deserts, and on the east by the Northern Territory....
.

The Black Wallaroo (Macropus bernardus) occupies an area of steep, rocky ground in Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land

The Arnhem Land Region is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500km from the territory capital Darwin, Northern Territory....
. At around 60 to 70 cm in length (excluding tail) it is the smallest wallaroo and the most heavily built. Males weigh 19 to 22 kg, females about 13 kg. Because it is very wary and is found only in a small area of remote and very rugged country, it is remarkably little known.

The Antilopine Wallaroo (Macropus antilopinus) is the exception among wallaroos. It is, essentially, the far-northern equivalent of the Eastern
Eastern Grey Kangaroo

The Eastern Grey Kangaroo is a marsupial found in southern and eastern Australia, with a population of several million. It is also known as the Great Grey Kangaroo and the Forester Kangaroo....
 and Western Grey Kangaroo
Western Grey Kangaroo

The Western Grey Kangaroo is a large and very common macropod, found across almost the entire southern part of Australia, from just south of Shark Bay to coastal South Australia, western Victoria, Australia, and the entire Murray-Darling Basin in New South Wales and Queensland....
s. Like them, it is a creature of the grassy plains and woodlands, and gregarious, where the other wallaroos are solitary. Because of this difference, it is sometimes called the Antilopine Kangaroo.