TAMMAR WALLABY Macropus eugenii ©Laura Quick
The tammar is among the smallest of the wallabies in the genus Macropus. Its coat colour is largely grey. The tammar has several notable adaptations, including the ability to retain energy while hopping, color vision and the ability to drink seawater. A nocturnal species, it spends nighttime in grassland habitat and daytime in shrub land. It is also very gregarious and has a seasonal, promiscuous mating pattern. A female tammar can nurse a joey in her pouch while keeping an embryo in her uterus. The tammar is a model species for research on marsupials, and on mammals in general. It is one of many organisms to have had its genome sequenced.
It has been introduced to New Zealand and reintroduced to some areas of Australia where it had been previously eradicated. Skull differences distinguish tammars from Western Australia, Kangaroo Island and mainland South Australia species, making them distinct population groups or possibly different subspecies.
