Ecology, Social Behaviour and Reproductive Success in a Population of Red-Necked Wallabies

Abstract

For three years I studied the social behaviour and ecology of red-necked wallabies 'Macropus rufogriseus banksianus' at Wallaby Creek in northern New South Wales. The objectives of the study were to describe the species' habitat use and social organisation, and to gather information on the behavioural and ecological determinants of reproductive success in male and female wallabies. Red-necked wallabies spend most of their time in, or close to, the cover provided by forest or dense ground vegetation, and live in home ranges which are very stable in location from year to year. The movement patterns of sex-and-age classes differ in a number of ways, and the movements of females vary according to season and to their reproductive states. Females living in preferred habitats reach maturity earlier than females living in areas apparently of lower quality. Groups of red-necked wallabies are usually small, and, in the short term, unstable. Groups are smallest and most stable in summer; larger, more loosely coordinated groups form in winter as the wallabies concentrate on dwindling patches of good pasture. ... Comparisons between red-necked wallabies and other species of mammals suggest that the wallabies' feeding style has had more influence on their grouping behaviour than has their anti-predator behaviour; that sex-differences in juvenile dispersal and philopatry may best be accounted for by considering sex-differences in the effects of dispersal on age at first breeding; and that much of the variation between species in male reproductive behaviour and the strength of matrilineal social organisations may be due to the evolutionary consequences of the degree of overlap of the home ranges of females.