Proserpine Rock-wallaby

Taxobox
name = Proserpine Rock-wallabyMSW3 Groves|pages=68]


status = EN
status_system = iucn3.1
status_ref = IUCN2006|assessors=Australasian Marsupial & Monotreme Specialist Group|year=1996|id=16747|title=Petrogale persephone|downloaded=2007-01-01 ]
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
subclassis = Marsupialia
ordo = Diprotodontia
familia = Macropodidae
genus = "Petrogale"
species = "P. persephone"
binomial = "Petrogale persephone"
binomial_authority = Maynes, 1982

The Proserpine Rock-wallaby ("Petrogale persephone") is a species of rock-wallaby restricted to a small area in the in Conway National Park, Dryander National Park, Gloucester Island National Park, and around the town of Airlie Beach, all in Whitsunday Shire in Queensland, Australia. It is the only member of its genus to be a threatened species, being classified by the IUCN as endangered.

The Proserpine Rock-wallaby is mostly grey in colour and is a timid grass-eater that never ventures far from rock shelter.cite book|last=Menkhorst|first=Peter|year=2001|title=A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=132] It is distinguished from the many other rock wallabies found in north-eastern Queensland by its larger size and longer tail, tipped with white. It was unknown to science until 1977, when a single individual was captured after farmers at Proserpine had spoken of a strange form of rock wallaby in the area. [cite book|author=Karl Shuker, Gerald Durrell|title=Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the Twentieth Century|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers|year=1993|isbn=0-00-219943-2|pages=81]

The Proserpine Rock-wallaby is found only in a relatively intensively-settled area, but it is competition with other more successful rock-wallaby species that is probably responsible for its threatened status.cite book|last=Maynes & Sharman|first=G.M. & G.B.|title=Proserpine Rock-wallaby "in" "The Complete Book of Australian Mammals" (ed. Ronald Strahan)|year=1981|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=220]

References

External links

* [http://www.deh.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=226 Australian Department of Environment and Heritage Species Profiles]
* [http://www.animalinfo.org/species/petrpers.htm Animal Info on the Proserpine Rock Wallaby]
* [http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/tbiol/zoology/auxillry/mammals/prossy.htm http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/tbiol/zoology/auxillry/mammals/prossy.htm] (includes photos)