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Macropus fuliginosuswestern gray kangaroo

By David Miller

Ge­o­graphic Range

This species of kan­ga­roo is found in the south­ern part of the con­ti­nent of Aus­tralia in­clud­ing south­ern Queens­land, south­ern New South Wales, and west­ern Vic­to­ria. In ad­di­tion, it is found on Kan­ga­roo Is­land off of the south­ern coast of Aus­tralia.

Habi­tat

West­ern grey kan­ga­roos are ca­pa­ble of using sev­eral dif­fer­ent types of habi­tats. They can be found in wood­lands, open forests, coastal heath­land, and open grass­land areas. They have also been found near city areas and on golf courses. These kan­ga­roos pre­fer areas with het­ero­ge­neous habi­tats, be­cause these areas are the most likely to meet their re­quire­ments for food and cover.

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

This species ex­hibits sex­ual di­mor­phism, whereby males are larger than fe­males. West­ern grey kan­ga­roos vary in color from light brown to red­dish shades of dark brown. They have a pale throat, chest and ab­domen. The muz­zle is dis­tinctly dif­fer­ent from other kan­ga­roo species in that it is cov­ered with much finer hair. These kan­ga­roos can grow to be as large as 7 ft. tall. The tail is used as a bal­ance in lo­co­mo­tion. Tail length ranges from 425-1000mm in males and 438-815mm in fe­males. Mus­cle mass makes up ap­prox­i­mately 80% of the body weight for this species.

  • Range mass
    3 to 53.5 kg
    6.61 to 117.84 lb
  • Range length
    946 to 2225 mm
    37.24 to 87.60 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Males com­pete for fe­males, whereby dom­i­nant males mate. Dom­i­nancy is de­ter­mined through "box­ing", which is a form of male com­pe­ti­tion.

West­ern grey kan­ga­roos can breed con­tin­u­ously, but a peak in re­pro­duc­tive ac­tiv­ity ex­ists in the sea­sons of spring and sum­mer. Sex­ual ma­tu­rity is reached at ap­prox­i­mately 20 months for males and 17 months for fe­males. Fe­males have an oe­strous cycle of ap­prox­i­mately 35 days. In­ter­est­ingly, the west­ern grey kan­ga­roo is not ca­pa­ble of em­bry­onic di­a­pause. Usu­ally, only a sin­gle off­sp­ing weigh­ing ap­prox­i­mately 0.8g is born after a mean ges­ta­tion pe­riod of 30.5 days. The off­sp­ing, com­monly called a joey, will climb from the birth canal to the pouch where it grabs hold of a teat and nurses. The joey will begin to leave the pouch after an av­er­age of 46 weeks, and may con­tinue to nurse from the pouch for up to an ad­di­tional 6 months after leav­ing the pouch. After the joey has left the pouch, the fe­male is ca­pa­ble of mat­ing again.

  • Breeding season
    year round with a peak in spring and summer
  • Range number of offspring
    1 to 1
  • Average number of offspring
    1
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    30.5 days
  • Average gestation period
    30 days
    AnAge
  • Average weaning age
    18 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    17 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    670 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    20 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    Sex: male
    880 days
    AnAge

Gen­er­ally, ex­clu­sively the fe­male cares for the young.

Lifes­pan/Longevity

West­ern grey kan­ga­roos have lived to be up­ward of 20 years old in cap­tiv­ity. How­ever, the max­i­mum lifes­pan of these kan­ga­roos in the wild is ap­prox­i­mately 10 years.

Be­hav­ior

West­ern grey kan­ga­roos form so­cial groups called "mobs" con­sist­ing of kan­ga­roos liv­ing in small fam­ily groups with an adult fe­male as the ma­tri­arch, other group mem­ber fe­males, and young. A daugh­ter often re­mains close to her mother even after giv­ing birth to a joey of her own. Males com­pete for dom­i­nance of the so­cial groups, with the strongest male be­com­ing the head of a mob. A dom­i­nant male kan­ga­roo re­sides with the mob when fe­males are fer­tile but sep­a­rates from the mob in win­ter when breed­ing fe­males are un­likely to come into oestrus. Dur­ing breed­ing, young males may form sin­gle-sex groups that exist seper­ately from the mobs. Ma­ture males may form loose as­so­ci­a­tions with other males which are not long last­ing and vary from year to year. West­ern grey kan­ga­roos may have home ranges that are as large as 550ha.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Food Habits

West­ern grey kan­ga­roos eat grasses, forbs, leaves, tree bark, and shrubby browse. They use mi­croor­gan­isms in an organ called the cecum to di­gest the cel­lu­lose of plants. This kan­ga­roo re­quires very lit­tle water and is able to sur­vive on plants high in fiber. West­ern grey kan­ga­roos spend be­tween 6 and 10 hours graz­ing per day, mostly at dawn and dusk. In cap­tiv­ity, these kan­ga­roos are often fed a pel­leted grain or hay.

  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • wood, bark, or stems

Pre­da­tion

The dingo (Canis fa­mil­iaris dingo) preys upon the west­ern grey kan­ga­roo. Healthy large males are usu­ally not preyed upon by the dingo be­cause of their size. How­ever, young and old age classes are vul­ner­a­ble to pre­da­tion by the dingo.

Ecosys­tem Roles

The west­ern grey kan­ga­roo con­trols veg­e­ta­tion growth by feed­ing on grasses and forbs.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Tourists enjoy view­ing this species of kan­ga­roo on golf courses and in na­tional parks. Aus­tralian kan­ga­roo meat is mar­keted through­out the world as a qual­ity game meat.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Crops and pas­teurs may be dam­aged by west­ern grey kan­ga­roos through their for­ag­ing in these areas.

  • Negative Impacts
  • crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

De­spite the crop dam­age from this kan­ga­roo species, it is a pro­tected species and is con­trolled ex­clu­sively by the state fau­nal au­thor­i­ties. In 1987, there was an es­ti­mated pop­u­la­tion of 1.7 mil­lion west­ern grey kan­ga­roos. Per­mits to har­vest the west­ern grey kan­ga­roo are is­sued in areas where this species in­ter­feres with suc­cess­ful agri­cul­tural op­er­a­tions or man­age­ment pro­grams to re­ha­bil­i­tate veg­e­ta­tion com­mu­ni­ties.

Other Com­ments

There are two sub­species of west­ern grey kan­ga­roo, Macro­pus fulig­i­nosus fulig­i­nosus on Kan­ga­roo Is­land, and Macro­pus fulig­i­nosus melanops on main­land Aus­tralia.

The west­ern grey kan­ga­roo has a tol­er­ance to flu­o­roac­etate, which is a poi­son pre­sent in many legumes in south­west­ern Aus­tralia.

Con­trib­u­tors

David Miller (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Kate Teeter (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Australian

Living in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, New Guinea and associated islands.

World Map

agricultural

living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

dominance hierarchies

ranking system or pecking order among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates

ecotourism

humans benefit economically by promoting tourism that focuses on the appreciation of natural areas or animals. Ecotourism implies that there are existing programs that profit from the appreciation of natural areas or animals.

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

folivore

an animal that mainly eats leaves.

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

scrub forest

scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

urban

living in cities and large towns, landscapes dominated by human structures and activity.

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

year-round breeding

breeding takes place throughout the year

Ref­er­ences

Anony­mous, Jan­u­ary 1, 2001. "Plants & An­i­mals: West­ern Grey Kan­ga­roo" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 8, 2001 at http://​www.​calm.​wa.​gov.​au/​plants_​animals/​mammal_​kangaroo.​html.

Anony­mous, Jan­u­ary, 2000. "South­ern Game Meat" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 9, 2001 at http://​www.​sgm.​com.​au/​index.​htm.

Anony­mous, Sep­tem­ber 22, 2001. "West­ern Grey Kan­ga­roos" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 8, 2001 at http://​www.​kangaroocenter.​com/​westerngrey.​html.

Arnold, G., D. Steven, A. Gras­sia. 1990. As­so­ci­a­tions be­tween in­di­vid­u­als and classes in groups of dif­fer­ent size in a pop­u­la­tion of west­ern grey kan­ga­roos, Macro­pus fulig­i­nosus. Aus­tralian Wildlife Re­search, 17: 551-562.

Ben­nett, A., e. Menkhorst. 1995. Mam­mals of Vic­to­ria. Ox­ford: Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press.

Coul­son, G. 1993. Use of het­ero­ge­neous habi­tat by the west­ern grey kan­ga­roo, Macro­pus fulig­i­nosus. Wildlife Re­search, 20: 137-149.

Poole, W. 1995. Macro­pus fulig­i­nosus. R Stra­han, ed. Mam­mals of Aus­tralia. Wash­ing­ton, D.C.: Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion Press.

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Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Diprotodontia kangaroos, possums, wallabies, and relatives
  • Family Macropodidae kangaroos, wallabies, and relatives
  • Genus Macropus kangaroos, wallabies, and wallaroos
  • Species Macropus fuliginosus western gray kangaroo