Parma wallaby
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phylum | Chordata | The Parma wallaby (Macropus parma) was first described by British naturalist John Gould in about 1840. A shy, cryptic creature of the wet sclerophyll forests of northern New South Wales (Australia), it was never commonly encountered and, even before the end of the 19th century, it was believed to be extinct.
In 1965 workers on Kawau Island (near Auckland, New Zealand) attempting to control a plague of introduced tammar wallabies (a widespread and fairly common species in Australia) were astonished to discover that some of the pests were not tammar wallabies at all, but a miraculously surviving population of Parma wallabies—a species long thought extinct. The extermination effort was put on hold while individuals were captured and sent to institutions in Australia and around the world in the hope that they would breed in captivity and could eventually be reintroduced to their native habitat. For more information visit the Wikipedia Entry Get back to Kangaroo |
class | Mammalia | |
superorder | Metatheria | |
order | Diprotodontia | |
family | Macropodidae | |
Genus | Macropus | |
Species | M. parma |