Bennett’s Wallaby

Fun Facts

Wallabies are marsupials, which means mothers carry their young in pouches, and females can pause their pregnancies if needed. When joeys are born, they are the size of jellybeans. Despite being blind, deaf, and hairless, they know how to crawl into their mothers’ pouches, where they spend the next several months finishing development. Mothers can produce two types of milk to feed joeys of different ages.

If the wallabies move faster than 10 miles per hour (16 kilometers per hour), hopping is the most efficient form of movement. When the legs are bent at the end of each bounce, energy stored in the tendons contributes to the next hop. Hopping also uses less energy to breathe because the abdominal organs “flopping” inside their bodies push air out of their lungs at the impact of each landing.

Studies show that species of the kangaroo kind maintain a constant number of hops per minute. Regardless of how fast they speed up, they simply take longer and longer hops.

Wallabies can lean back on their tails to reach food up high or to box with each other. They have powerful kicks and can defend themselves against predators with fast jabs.

Male wallabies are called boomers, bucks, or jacks. Females are called flyers, does, or jills.