Parma Wallaby (Macropus parma) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Diet in the wild

• Primary diet: grasses and herbaceous plants (Read & Fox 1991; Warburton 2005)
• Feed mainly on grasses, supplemented with herbs
• In one Australian study, grasses 60% of diet (Read & Fox 1991)
  • Primarily Tussock grass (Danthonia species) and Blady grass (Imperata cylindricon)
  • Variety of other grasses and herbs
• On Kawau Island (Warburton 2005):
  • Herbs:
    • St. John’s wort (Hypericum japonicum)
    • Creeping lady’s sorrel (Oxalis corniculata)
    • Bull or common thistle (Cirsium vulgare)
    • St. Veronica speedwell (Veronica plebeja)
    • Soliva anthemifolia
    • American water-pennywort or navelwort (Hydrocotyle americana)
    • Common or scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis)
    • White clover (Trifolium repens)
    • Parisian bestraw or cleavers (Galium parisiense)
    • Viney woodruff (Galium propinguum)
    • Centaury (Centaurium erythraea)
    • Cudweed (Gnaphalium gymnocephalum)
    • Cotula (Centipeda orbicularis)
    • Creeping dichondra (Dichondra repens)
    • Lotus species (Lotus pedunculatus, L. angustissimus)
  • Grasses and sedges:
    • Lachnagrostis filiformis
    • Nothodanthonia racemosa
    • Paspalum (Paspalum digitatum)
    • Sedge (Carex inversa)
  • Shrubs:
    • Pomaderris phyllicifolia
  • Trees:
    • Kanuka (Kunzea ericoides) (both leaves and bark)
    • Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata) (leaves only)
• Also consume fungi (Jackson & Vernes 2011; Vernes 2010)
  • Parma wallabies eat many varieties of fungi, both above-ground mushrooms and truffle-like species
    • 30 fungal taxa detected in fecal samples in one study (Vernes 2010)
    • Different species consumed throughout year
    • Most common: Chamonixia, Hysterangium species, Russuloid 4, Thaxterogaste
  • Many marsupials in Australia eat fungi
    • Australia has over 2000 species of truffle-like (below-ground) fungi
    • Easy to digest and nutritious
    • Three-way symbiotic relationship
      • Truffles and trees
        • Truffles form associations with tree roots ("mycorrhiza"), receiving nutrients in the form of sugars
        • Trees with mycorrhiza benefit from increased nutrient uptake, drought tolerance, and disease resistance
      • Truffles and animals
        • Animals obtain nutritious, easy-to-digest food from the truffles
        • The truffles reproduce more effectively when their spores pass through animals feces

Feeding areas

• Grasslands, grassy woodlands, heathlands, and sedge swamps bordering dense forests

Grazing

• Preferentially graze on previously ungrazed areas with abundant grasses
• Consume food in an upright surveillance posture
• Consistent with a small mammal's need to maximize energy intake while avoiding predation

Nutrition (Hume 1999)

• Nitrogen requirements
• At least double those of macropodid species living in drier habitats
  • Similar to red-necked pademelon (Thylogale thetis), another wet sclerophyll forest-dwelling macropodid
• Intake of dry matter and water
  • At least double that of macropodid species living in drier habitats
    • Similar to red-necked pademelon
• Tolerance to tannins in diet
• Much lower tolerance than in browsing macropodid species
• Tannins are bitter, protein-binding polyphenolic compounds produced by many plants for defense against browsers
• Tannin-binding proteins in the saliva allow browsers to tolerate high levels of tannins in their diet
• The parma wallaby, a grazer, has fewer of the tannin-binding salivary proteins than the red-necked pademelon, a browser

Hume (1999)
Jackson & Vernes (2011)
Read & Fox (1991)
Vernes (2010)
Warburton (2005)