Parma wallaby

Parma wallaby
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Macropodidae
Genus: Notamacropus
Species:
N. parma
Binomial name
Notamacropus parma
(Waterhouse, 1845)
Parma wallaby range
Synonyms

Macropus parma Waterhouse, 1845

The parma wallaby (Notamacropus parma) is a small marsupial macropod mammal native to forests and densely-vegetated areas of northeastern New South Wales, Australia, close to the border with Queensland. An introduced population exists on New Zealand's Kawau Island. About the size of a stout cat, it lives mainly under thick plant cover, and is only active at night when it emerges to feed on grasses and small plants. It is the smallest of the wallabies (short, kangaroo-like marsupial mammals of the genus Notamacropus) and carries its young in a pouch, as with other marsupials. Shy and elusive, it was believed extinct until its rediscovery in the 1960s.

Parma wallabies are threatened by habitat loss, and, in addition to native predators (such as birds of prey, monitor lizards, and snakes), they are easily preyed upon by dingoes and non-native feral cats and red foxes.