Endangered
Proserpine rock-wallaby
Petrogale persephone
Proserpine rock-wallaby is a mammal in the family Macropodidae (order Diprotodontia) — Petrogale persephone, recorded as Endangered and tied to Australia.
Appearance
The Proserpine rock-wallaby is mostly grey in color and is a timid grass-eater that rarely ventures far from rock shelter. It is distinguished from the many other rock wallabies found in northeastern Queensland by its larger size and longer tail, tipped with white, distinct lack of pelage markings, incomplete ectoympanic ring not fused to posterior end of zygomatic arch, large pre-molars, and preference for deciduous vine forest habitats.
It was scientifically described in 1982 by Maynes GM who placed it as one of 11 species of rock-wallaby currently recognized in Queensland.
Range and habitat
The Proserpine rock-wallaby requires rocky outcrops, rock piles, and cliffs within a sloping microphyll/notophyll semi-deciduous dry vine forest in order to survive as these locations provide the best access to food and the ability to evade predators. During dry periods, colonies will move to the edges of the vine forest to feed on grasses. The Proserpine rock-wallaby is found only in a relatively intensively-settled area, but it is in competition with other more successful rock-wallaby species, that competition is probably responsible for its threatened status.
The Proserpine rock-wallaby is a rock-wallaby restricted to a small area in Conway National Park, Dryander National Park, Gloucester Island National Park, and around the town of Airlie Beach, all in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia. Conservationists second objective is to maintain and monitor the population of Proserpine rock-wallabies on Hayman Island.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
The Proserpine rock-wallaby will breed approximately once per year producing a single offspring and has an oestrus cycle range of 33–35 days with a gestation period of 33–34 days.
In crisis
In 1992 the species was listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Protection Act, and in 1999, the Proserpine rock-wallaby was once again listed as 'Endangered' under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), that became effective on June 16th, 2000. Conservationists first objective is to monitor known Proserpine rock-wallaby populations to determine the absence, presence, and colony conditions of the known 24 existing PRW sites. Introductions of captive bred wallabies were released to the island to establish populations that are less likely to be threatened by disease, parasites, road strikes, introduced predators, and toxic plants.
In 1998, 26 individuals were released on the island and have since doubled in size. Between 2006 and 2008, 5 more individuals were introduced to strengthen genetic viability among the colony.
Proserpine rock-wallaby is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Proserpine rock-wallaby, Wikidata item Q209322. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
