
Encyclopedia of Life · EOL (see source)
Rufous hare-wallaby
Sign in to saveAlso known as Lagorchestes hirsutus, Rufous hare wallaby
species of mammal
Species
Near ThreatenedMaximum longevity: 13.2 years (captivity)
via IUCN
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The rufous hare-wallaby (Lagorchestes hirsutus), also known as the mala, is a small macropod found in Australia. It was formerly widely distributed across the western half of the continent, but naturally occurring populations are now confined to Bernier Island and Dorre Island Islands off Western Australia.
Although once widespread in the central and western deserts, predation by feral cats and foxes, and destructive wildfires, caused the last wild population on mainland Australia to go extinct in the early 1990s. Despite its extinction in the wild, the mainland subspecies persisted in captivity.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Rufous hare-wallaby” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.