Australia's Tropical Antelope Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations

Summary: Antelope kangaroo natural history illustrations look at Australia's northern tropical kangaroos of Eucalyptus-, forb-, tussock grass-lush habitat niches.

head closeup of antelope kangaroo (Macropus antilopinus) by English artist and ornithologist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881); H.C. (Henry Constantine) Richter lithographer, (Charles Joseph) Hullmandel and (Joseph Fowell) Walton printers: J. Gould's Mammals of Australia (1863), vol. II, Plate 8, opposite page 12: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Antelope kangaroo natural history illustrations allow an appreciation of an Australian animal that accounts for one of four acknowledged species whose herbivorous ("plant-eating") adults advance toward, not away from, croplands and pastures.

Antelope kangaroo natural history illustrations broach the antelope-like physical appearance, and sometimes the habitat niches and life cycles, of the Australia-only, antelope-like kangaroo, wallaby or wallaroo. Antelope kangaroos sometimes carry the common names antelope wallabies or wallaroos because of classification connections in the Macropodidae kangaroo, pademelon, quokka, tree-kangaroo, wallaby and wallaroo family. The scientific name Macropus antilopinus ("big-footed antelope-like [kangaroo]") derives from scientific descriptions in 1842 by bird artist and specialist John Gould (Sep. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881).

Antelope kangaroo natural history illustrations sometimes elaborate antelope kangaroo grazing grounds amid perennial grasses and in open grasslands in northern and western Australia's tropical woodland understory.

The annual wet season from November through April furnishes breeding months for antelope kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos found natively in the Land Down Under's tropical north.

Australia goes summery December through February, autumnal March through May, wintry June through August and vernal September through November and, tropically northward, dry May through October. Dry seasons in northern Queensland and Western Australia and the septentrional Northern Territory have fewer green plants and lower water levels for pregnant and nursing females. Greens and water impel sexually mature two-year-old males and 16-month-old females to initiate breeding and deliveries in rainy, summery months despite year-round mating and birthing opportunities.

Antelope kangaroo natural history illustrations jump 16-year lifespans back to 30- to 35-day gestated eggs hatched into blind, hairless, lima bean-sized, 1-inch (2.54-centimeter), 0.03-ounce (0.85-gram) joeys.

Females optimally keep one embryo in birthing canals and one newborn whose instincts kindle three-minute crawls from birthing exits toward one pouch-borne joey under nine months.

Embryos, pink, scent-sensitive newborns with clawed, developed forelimbs and brown- or red-tan six- to 15-month-old joeys respectively live off yolk, low-fat milk and greens and milk. Physically and sexually mature females manage simultaneous pregnancy, nursing and joey-raising through diapausing embryonic development at 100 cells until the pouch maintains only the maturing newborn. Weaned antelope kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos need forbs and tussock-like grasses in Queensland's Cape York Peninsula, the Northern Territory's Top End and Western Australia's Kimberley region.

Antelope kangaroo natural history illustrations offer grasses and herbaceous flowering plants grazed dawn, dusk and nights at altitudes under 1,640.42 feet (500 meters) above sea level.

Adulthood presents brown-tan-bodied, gray-, small-headed, gray-shouldered 33.07- to 66.14-pound (15- to 30-kilogram) females with white-tipped ear-backs and red-bodied, swollen-nosed 33.07- to 154.32-pound (30- to 70-kilogram) males.

Gould's description queued up three incisors per upper-jaw side and one false molar and four true molars per lower- and upper-jaw sides inside a broad muzzle. Gould's antelope fur-like, bare-, broad-muffled, short-muzzled specimen revealed top-rounded ears, strong-clawed, strong-footed long, stout forelimbs, muscular short hind-limbs and rough-bottomed hind-feet, each with large middle toes. Agro-industry, globally warmed climate change and hunting stress 2.62- to 4.92-foot- (0.8- to 1.5-meter-) tall antelope kangaroos in Eucalyptus-dominated, regenerating and savannah woodlands and open grasslands.

Antelope kangaroo natural history illustrations tribute antelope kangaroos that sometimes trample, with black-tipped, white-undersided fore- and rear-feet, green, short grasses in floodplain, hill and valley shade.

female (left) and male (right) of antelope kangaroo (Macropus antilopinus) by English artist and ornithologist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881), drawn from specimens collected by English explorer and naturalist John Gilbert (March 14, 1812-June 28, 1845) in Port Essington, Cobourg Peninsula, northwestern Northern Territory; H.C. (Henry Constantine) Richter lithographer, (Charles Joseph) Hullmandel and (Joseph Fowell) Walton printers: J. Gould's Mammals of Australia (1863), vol. II, Plate 9, opposite page 13: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

head closeup of antelope kangaroo (Macropus antilopinus) by English artist and ornithologist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881); H.C. (Henry Constantine) Richter lithographer, (Charles Joseph) Hullmandel and (Joseph Fowell) Walton printers: J. Gould's Mammals of Australia (1863), vol. II, Plate 8, opposite page 12: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49740673;
Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/36955462065/

female (left) and male (right) of antelope kangaroo (Macropus antilopinus) by English artist and ornithologist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881), drawn from specimens collected by English explorer and naturalist John Gilbert (March 14, 1812-June 28, 1845) in Port Essington, Cobourg Peninsula, northwestern Northern Territory; H.C. (Henry Constantine) Richter lithographer, (Charles Joseph) Hullmandel and (Joseph Fowell) Walton printers: J. Gould's Mammals of Australia (1863), vol. II, Plate 9, opposite page 13: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49740677;
Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/36955463925/

For further information:

Gould, J. (John). 12 October 1841. "Descriptions of Four New Species of Kangaroos: Osphranter antilopinus." Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, part IX: 80-81. London, England: Printed for The Society by R. and J.E. Taylor.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30679702
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/proceedingsofgen41zool#page/n91/mode/1up

Gould, John. 1863. "Osphranter antilopinus Gould. Red Wallaroo." The Mammals of Australia, vol. II: 12-13, Plates 8-9. London, England: Printed for The Author by Taylor and Francis.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49740673
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/mammalsAustrali2Goul#page/8/mode/1up

Lundie-Jenkins, Geoff. "Wallabies and Kangaroos." In: Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist and Melissa C. McDade, eds. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 13, Mammals II: 83-103. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2003.