Identification of an eastern short-eared rock-wallaby (Petrogale wilkinsi) population in Queensland: a significant range extension
Lea Ezzy A D , Anthony C. Grice B and Will Parker CA Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, PO Box 5597, Townsville MC, Qld 4810, Australia.
B College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.
C 11/35 Chasely Street, Auchenflower, Qld 4066, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: lea.ezzy@des.qld.gov.au
Australian Mammalogy 43(2) 252-255 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM20008
Submitted: 17 February 2020 Accepted: 30 April 2020 Published: 5 June 2020
Abstract
A new population of eastern short eared rock-wallaby (Petrogale wilkinsi) has been recorded in Queensland. The animals were photographed on a sandstone cliff face in Lawn Hill Gorge, Boodjamulla National Park, ~160 km from the closest record on Wollogorang Station in the Northern Territory. The species was originally thought to occur north of the 600-mm rainfall isohyet, with most of the population found in the monsoonal tropics of the Top End. This record significantly extends the known range of this taxon to the south-east and places P. wilkinsi at the 450-mm rainfall isohyet. Sympatry in rock-wallabies is unusual but P. wilkinsi at Boodjamulla appears to be sympatric with the more common purple necked rock-wallaby (Petrogale purpureicollis). A recent taxonomic revision of the brachyotis group found that there was a significant mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) divergence between the Wollogorang record and the rest of the P. wilkinsi group further north, but further genetic sampling across the southern Gulf of Carpentaria is required to determine whether these populations represent an additional distinct taxon.
Additional keywords: brachyotis, distribution, mitochondrial DNA, purpureicollis.
References
ALA (2020). Atlas of Living Australia. CSIRO, Canberra. Available at: www.ala.org.au [accessed February 2020].Clancy, T.F., Gibson, L. A., and Christie, A. (1991). Report on preliminary survey to determine the identity of the Petrogale species previously sighted in the Riversleigh/Lawn Hill area. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service internal report.
DAWE (2012). Australia’s bioregions (Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia, IBRA). Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. Available at: http://www.environment.gov.au/land/nrs/science/ibra [accessed December 2019].
DNRME (2019). 1 : 250 000 mean annual rainfall isohyets. Rainfall Isohyet Data, Bureau of Meteorology. Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy, Canberra.
Eldridge, M. D. B., Johnson, P. M., Clancy, T. F., Close, R. L., and Bell, J. N. (1993). Identification of a rock-wallaby population from ‘Lawn Hill’, northwest Queensland, as Petrogale lateralis purpureicollis: a significant range extension. Australian Mammalogy 16, 59–60.
Johnson, P. M., Eldridge, M. D. B., Kiernan, V., and Cuppitt, R. J. (2001). A significant range extension of the purple necked rock-wallaby Petrogale purpureicollis. Australian Mammalogy 23, 71–73.
| A significant range extension of the purple necked rock-wallaby Petrogale purpureicollis.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Pearson, D. J., Neaves, L. E., Paxman, M., Desmond, A., Renwick, J., Halley, M., Willers, N., and Eldridge, M. D. B. (2019). Identification of a remnant population of the black-flanked rock-wallaby (Petrogale lateralis lateralis) in Kalbarri National Park, Western Australia, and implications for its management. Australian Mammalogy 41, 196–204.
| Identification of a remnant population of the black-flanked rock-wallaby (Petrogale lateralis lateralis) in Kalbarri National Park, Western Australia, and implications for its management.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Pentland, C. (2014). Behavioural ecology of the black-flanked rock-wallaby (Petrogale lateralis lateralis): refuge importance in a variable environment. Ph.D. Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Perth. Available at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1280 [accessed December 2019].
Potter, S., Close, R. L., Taggart, D. A., Cooper, S. J. B., and Eldridge, M. D. B. (2014). Taxonomy of rock-wallabies, Petrogale (Marsupialia: Macropodidae). IV. Multifaceted study of the brachyotis group identifies additional taxa. Australian Mammalogy 62, 401–414.
Trainor, C. R. (1996). Habitat use and demographic characteristics of the endangered Carpentarian rock-rat Zyzomys palatalis. M.Sc. Thesis, Northern Territory University, Darwin.
Turpin, J. M., White, N. E., Dunlop, J. A., and Bamford, M. J. (2018). New populations of the black-flanked rock-wallaby (Petrogale lateralis) from the Little Sandy Desert and Murchison, Western Australia. Australian Mammalogy 40, 234–242.
| New populations of the black-flanked rock-wallaby (Petrogale lateralis) from the Little Sandy Desert and Murchison, Western Australia.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Van Dyck, S., and Strahan, R. (2008). ‘The Mammals of Australia.’ (Reed New Holland: Sydney.)
White, A. W., and Mason, D. R. (2011). The modern mammal fauna of Riversleigh and Boodjamullah National Park. Australian Zoologist 35, 599–618.
| The modern mammal fauna of Riversleigh and Boodjamullah National Park.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
