Banded Hare Wallaby

Need more Banded Hare Wallaby facts? Enter your search terms Submit search form Featured Creature Rainbow Parrotfish Rainbow parrotfish schools graze over the coral reef much like a herd of cattle over a grassy field. One adult male (the "supermale") often leads these schools. Females if needed may transform into males in order to reproduce. The supermales are typically sex-reversed females and are very territorial, habitually driving other males from the area. Learn more about the Rainbow Parrotfish.   Join the Featured Creature Mailing List Would you like to receive a notice and link when the new Creature Feature is posted? Enter your e-mail address below:   HTML   Text-only Privacy Policy

Scientific Name:
Lagostrophus fasciatus

Other Names and/or Listed subspecies:
Munning

Area(s) Where Listed As Endangered:
Australia

The banded hare wallaby is found on Bernier and Dorre Islands in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Adults weigh from 2.9 to 2.6 lbs and females are usually larger than males. It is referred to as a "hare" wallaby because of its hare-like jumping ability and speed. They also have a habit of sitting in well formed hare-like squats. The fur of the banded hare wallaby is long, soft, and thick and its ears are short. They can grow up to 46 cm in length and the tail is short.

The banded hare wallaby prefers to feed at night and eats grasses, spinifex, fruit and a variety of shrubs and plants. It is a sociable animal and likes to congregate with other wallabies under bushes during the day. Males are very aggressive toward each other and fight for food and for females to mate with. Females give birth to one and sometimes two babies. The young spend about six months in the mother's pouch and are weaned at nine months.

The banded hare wallaby has disappeared from most of its range because of the clearing of vegetation for agriculture, competition for food with nonnative mammals and predation by nonnative animals like cats and foxes. It is now protected by law in Western Australia. The last population estimate (from 1992) was about 9,700 individuals. Current population estimates are unavailable.