Parma Wallaby (Macropus parma) Fact Sheet: Taxonomy & History

• Species - reported by Waterhouse in 1846
  • Subspecies - none
  • Hybrids have been produced in managed care with Macropus dorsalis and M. eugenii (Close & Lowry 1990)
• Common name- parma wallaby (Maynes 2008; Warburton 2005)
  • Parma - Australian Aboriginal word for this species
  • Wallaby - from Eora word wollabi, used by Aboriginal people in Sydney region for brush-tailed rock wallaby, later by European settlers for small macropods (Jackson & Vernes 2011)
  • Also known as: white-fronted wallaby, white-throated wallaby, white-throated pademelon; small brown wallaby (on Kawau Island, New Zealand)
• Scientific name - Macropus parma ("parma long-foot") (Gove 1971)
  • Macropus - from Greek makros for "long" + Greek pod or pous for "foot"
  • Parma - Australian Aboriginal word for this species
  • Recent synonyms: Thylogale parma, Wallabia parma, Protemnodon parma (Dawson & Flannery 1985); Notamacropus parma (Wilson and Mittermeier 2015)

• Emergence of the macropods (reviewed in Archer et al. 1999 and Jackson & Vernes 2011)
  • Ancestors of modern macropods arose from possum-like ancestors in Australia
    • Genetic studies suggest the split occurred about 40 million years ago
  • Earliest known kangaroo fossils 26-23 million years old (late Oligocene)
    • Small "rat kangaroos" - lived in warm rainforests
  • Climate change about 33-23 million years ago influenced evolution of macropods
    • Australia cooled and dried as it drifted northward
    • Led to diversification of leathery-leaved plants, such as Eucalyptus
    • This provided abundant food for ground-dwelling browsers and grazers
• Diversification of the macropods (reviewed in Archer et al. 1999 and Jackson & Vernes 2011)
  • First grasslands appeared by about 17 million years ago
  • Large, ground-dwelling, grazing macropods appeared
    • Arboreal and browsing adaptations lost
  • Macropodids co-evolved with a range of predators
    • Fossils of small Macropus species found with thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), a dingo-sized carnivore
    • Selection pressure led to adaptations that enabled detection and avoidance of predators
  • Explosion of new macropod species (adaptive radiation) began about 5 million years ago
• Macropus parma
  • In genus Macropus, subgenus Notamacropus - 8 extant (living) and 2 extinct species of wallabies (Dawson & Flannery 1985)
  • Closest relative according to phylogenetic studies: black-striped wallaby, Macropus dorsalis (Cardillo et al. 2004)

• Australian Aboriginal cultures (Jarman & Coulson 1989; Jackson & Vernes 2011)
  • Aborigines arrived in Australia about 50,000 years ago
  • Macropods of all sizes probably the major food source of early aboriginal Australians
  • Variety of hunting strategies
    • Trapping and driving are successful methods used to hunt smaller wallabies
    • Fire commonly used to drive smaller species from densely wooded areas
  • Macropods also source of food, clothing, rugs, bags, supplies, cord, and ornaments
• European settlers (Jackson & Vernes 2011)
  • Europeans began exploring coastlines of Australia in 16th century
  • Earliest confirmed report of an Australian macropod made by the Dutch in 1629
    • Early settlers recorded many observations of macropods after 1788
  • Parma wallaby first identified by naturalist John Gould around 1840 (Domico 1993)
    • Identified from specimens provided by Gould's chief collector, naturalist and explorer John Gilbert
    • Parma wallaby plate in The Mammals of Australia, John Gould, 1863
  • Europeans hunted mainly larger species of macropods but also parma wallabies (Jarman & Coulson 1989)
• Disappearance and rediscovery of the parma wallaby (Wodzicki & Flux 1971)
  • 1957 - parma wallabies known only from 12 museum specimens
    • Thought to have disappeared from mainland Australia by 1932
  • 1965 - rediscovered on Kawau Island, New Zealand
    • In 1870s, New Zealand's first governor, Sir George Grey, stocked grounds of his Kawau Island estate with parma and other wallabies
    • The parma wallaby flourished, became a feral population on the island
    • Considered by locals to be a threat to pine plantations, shot in large numbers (as many as 200 at a time)
  • 1966-1970 - measures undertaken to preserve the species
    • 384 parma wallabies captured live and shipped to zoo worldwide
      • Breeding colonies established
      • Current North American captive parma wallaby population is descended from some of these animals (Ivy et al. 2009)
    • Given official protection by New Zealand government in 1968, pest control measures suspended
  • 1967: rediscovered on Australian mainland
    • Live parma wallaby captured around 1967 near Gosford, New South Wales
    • Researchers subsequently found multiple populations in eastern New South Wales

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Diprotodontia - koalas, wombats, possums, macropods (kangaroos, tree kangaroos, wallaroos, etc.)

Family: Macropodidae - kangaroos, wallabies

Genus: Macropus

Species: Macropus parma - Parma wallaby

Source: Integrated Taxonomic Information System (2016)

The name "parma" comes from the Aboriginal word for this species.

Image credit: © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. All rights reserved.

Archer et al. (1999)
Cardillo et al. (2004)
Close & Lowry (1990)
Dawson & Flannery (1985)
Domico (1993)
Gove (1971)
ITIS (2016)
Ivy et al. (2009)
Jackson & Vernes (2011)
Jarman & Coulson (1989)
Martin (2006)
Maynes (2008)
Prideaux & Warburton (2010)
Waterhouse (1846)
Wilson and Mittermeier (2015)
Wodzicki & Flux (1971)