Brush-tailed rock-wallaby, Petrogale penicillata (Marsupialia: Macropodidae), observed feeding on fallen Acacia inflorescences

Abstract

In September 1995, a female brush-tailed rockwallaby Petrogale penicillata (Gray 1825), with pouch young, was observed while feeding near Wollomombi Falls (30° 31' 53''S, 152° 2' 19"E), which is in the upper catchment of the Macleay River. During the 10-minute observation, the animal fed and groomed itself and the pouch young. The female ate inflorescences, spikes approximately 5cm long, that had fallen from an Acacia diphyla, a spreading shrub of 3 m. The rock wallaby selected the fallen spikes from among Poa seiberana tussocks. Although the tussocks were mostly senescent, P. sieberana was also eaten by the rock wallaby during the observation period.