Red kangaroo, Megaleia rufa (Desmarest), in north-western New South Wales. 2. Food

Abstract

A study of food available to and eaten by kangaroos on a sandhill habitat at Tero Creek Station in a semi-arid part of north-western New South Wales was made between June 1964 and February 1966. At the beginning of this period green food was abundant but 1965 was a year of extreme drought, when the quantity and variety of food available to kangaroos declined. Grasses and chenopods were the main food items throughout the year. Palatable grasses, mainly Eragrostis spp. and Enneapogon avenaceus, were selected when they were available, but as the drought progressed and these grasses became rare, chenopods (principally Bassia diacantha) were selected instead of other grass and non-grass species. When grasses were eaten stems were taken in addition to leaves, but in dicotyledons the woody stems were avoided in favour of leaves and fruit. The food preferences of kangaroos in a habitat dominated by bluebush (Kochia sedifolia and K. pyramidata) at Mt. Murchison Station, near Wilcannia in northwestern N.S.W., were compared with those of the kangaroos at Tero Creek. Even when these perennial chenopods were very abundant they were rarely eaten.