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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 18(7)

Reproduction in female swamp wallabies, Wallabia bicolor

Justyna Zofia Paplinska A B , Richard L. C. Moyle A , Peter D. M. Temple-Smith A and Marilyn B. Renfree A
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- Author Affiliations

A Department of Zoology, The University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia.

B Corresponding author. Email: jzpapl@unimelb.edu.au

Reproduction, Fertility and Development 18(7) 735-743 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD06024
Submitted: 22 March 2006  Accepted: 9 May 2006   Published: 18 August 2006

Abstract

The swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) is a common, medium-sized, browsing macropodid marsupial that is unique in many ways. Relatively little is known about the reproductive biology of this species. Previous studies have proposed that the swamp wallaby has a pre-partum oestrus because the gestation period (x = 35.5 days, n = 4) is on average longer than the oestrus period (x = 31.0 days, n = 5) and the period from the removal of pouch young (RPY) to mating (x = 26.0days, n = 3). In the current study, the period from RPY to birth was confirmed at x = 31.25 days (n = 4) in captive animals, consistent with a pre-partum oestrus. A growth curve for swamp wallaby pouch young was constructed from the progeny of captive animals to estimate the age and date of birth of young in a wild, culled population in South Gippsland, Victoria, and the reproduction of females in the wild throughout the year was examined. Young were born in every month of the year, with no statistically significant variation in the number of young born in each month. Females did not have a period of seasonal anoestrus and conceived throughout the year. Female swamp wallabies in South Gippsland bred continuously throughout the period of this study.

Extra keywords: macropodid, marsupial, pre-partum oestrus, seasonal breeding.


Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Holsworth Wildlife Research Fund and by a Melbourne University Research Scholarship to Justyna Paplinska. We thank Steve Wentworth, Mark Grumley and Mark Felmingham of Grand Ridge Plantations for supplying tissue samples at Maryvale. We thank Scott Brownlees, Patrick Jackson and Kerry Martin for assistance with animal husbandry. Thanks also go to staff at Healesville Sanctuary, especially David Middleton and Paul Slinger for help and advice. Thanks also to Mike Johnston and Frank Busana from KTRI for help with and advice on trapping. Warm thanks to Andrew Paplinski and Geoff Shaw for mathematical advice. Special thanks also the many field volunteers. Many thanks to Geoff Shaw and David Paul for photography.


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