Kangaroo Island Western Gray Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations

Summary: Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroo natural history illustrations honor dark-bodied, dark ear-tipped grazers off the mainland state of South Australia.

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus) graze in open woodlands; Kelly Hill Conservation Park, Karatta, southwestern Kangaroo Island, southeastern South Australia, south central Australia; Nov. 3, 2012: Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble (Paul and Jill), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroo natural history illustrations address the distribution ranges and physical aspects that assemble the Commonwealth of Australia's western gray kangaroos into one island subspecies and one mainland subspecies.

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroos bear the common names Kangaroo Island and Kangaroo Island western grey kangaroos as endemic marsupials, from the Greek μάρσιππος (mársippos, "pouch"). Rising sea levels 10,000 years ago cut what mainland Aboriginal tribes call Karta ("Island of the Dead") off from the current south-central state of South Australia. Kangaroo Island western gray kanaroos dwell only on the 93-mile (149.67-kilometer) by 35- to 56-mile (56.33- to 90.12-kilometer) island 8.4 miles (13.52 kilometers) from Fleurieu Peninsula.

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroo natural history illustrations examine endemic marsupials whose specimens Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (March 6, 1784-June 4, 1838) examined and explicated in 1817.

The Captain Matthew Flinders (March 1, 1774-July 19, 1854) and Commander Nicolas Thomas Baudin (Feb. 17, 1754-Sep. 16, 1803) expeditions furnished respectively dead and live specimens.

The Flinders specimen from 1802 and Baudin populations from 1803 for Paris's Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes ("Zoo of the Botanical Garden") got one scientific name. Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroos hold nominate ("first-named") status even though they have lesser distribution ranges and lower population totals than south-central to southwestern mainland counterparts. Scientific nomenclature sometimes identifies two continental subspecies, as Macropus fuliginosus melanops and Macropus fuliginosus ocydromus, for the Macropus fuliginosus ("big-footed sooty [kangaroo]") western gray kangaroo species.

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroo natural history illustrations join Australia's "black-faced" (melanops) and "swift runner" (ocydromus) western gray kangaroo natural history illustrations as Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus.

Kangaroo Island kangaroo subspecies members of the Macropodidae kangaroo, pademelon, quokka, tree-kangaroo, wallaby and wallaroo family know breeding and birthing seasons similar to their continental counterparts.

Lands alongside the Backstairs Passage and Investigator Strait look summery December through February, autumnal March through May, wintry June through August and vernal September through November. Western gray kangaroo subspecies on insular and mainland sides of the more easterly Backstairs Passage and more westerly Investigator Strait mate potentially year-round but practically summers. Western gray kangaroo subspecies, unlike other kangaroo species' simultaneously developed egg and birthed and nursing joeys, net one egg, one newborn, one joey at a time.

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroo natural history illustrations sometimes offer life cycle observations even though continental natural history illustrations occur more for black-faced than swift-running subspecies.

Scientific classification proves dynamic in that mammalogists prefer the melanops subspecies for south-central to southwestern Australian western gray kangaroos but preserve fuliginosus for Kangaroo Island endemics.

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroos queue up darker, thicker heads, less pale undersides, shorter ears, limbs and tails and sootier brown bodies than their mainland equivalents. They range through bushlands, croplands, forests, heathlands, pasturelands, scrublands, shrublands and woodlands for acacia (wattle), allocasuarina (she-oak) and xanthorrhoea (grass-tree) leaves, forbs (low-growing herbs) and grasses. Flinders Chase National Park in Flinders Chase, Gosse and Karatta serves as a westernmost, year-round spot for seeing all Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroo life stages.

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroo natural history illustrations treasure an island-only subspecies whose populations the International Union for Conservation of Nature tag as of least concern.

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus) family; Flinders Chase National Park, southwestern Kangaroo Island, southeastern South Australia, south central Australia; Nov. 7, 2013: DiverDave, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus) graze in open woodlands; Kelly Hill Conservation Park, Karatta, southwestern Kangaroo Island, southeastern South Australia, south central Australia; Nov. 3, 2012: Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble (Paul and Jill), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/pauljill/8275647191/
via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kangaroo_Island_kangaroos.jpg

Kangaroo Island western gray kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus) family; Flinders Chase National Park, southwestern Kangaroo Island, southeastern South Australia, south central Australia; Nov. 7, 2013: DiverDave, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Macropus_fuliginosus_fuliginosus-1.JPG

For further information:

Desm. (Desmarest, Anselme Gaëtan). 1817. "Second espèce. -- Kanguroo brun enfumé, Kangurus fuliginosus." Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, Appliquée aux Arts, à l'Agriculture, à l'Économie Rurale et Domestique, à la Médecine, etc. Tome XVII: 35-36, Plate XXII. Paris, France: Chez Deterville, MDCCCXVII.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/18054378

Gould, J. (John). 25 January 1842. "On Some New Species of Australian Mammals: Macropus melanops." Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, part X (1842), no. LXII: 10-11. London, England: Printed for The Society by R. and J.E. Taylor, 1842.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30679772

Gould, John. September 1842. "Description of Two New Species of Kangaroos From Western Australia: Macropus ocydromus." The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. X: 1-2. London, England: R. and J.E. Taylor.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2324037

Gould, John. 1863. "Macropus Fuliginosus. Sooty Kangaroo." The Mammals of Australia, vol. II: Plate 5, opposite page 8. London, England: Printed for The Author by Taylor and Francis.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49740653
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/mammalsAustrali2Goul#page/3/mode/1up

Gould, John. 1863. "Macropus Ocydromus. West-Australian Great Kangaroo." The Mammals of Australia, vol. II: pages 6-7, Plates 3-4. London, England: Printed for The Author by Taylor and Francis.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49740661
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/mammalsAustrali2Goul#page/5/mode/1up

Iredale, T. (Tom); and E. (Ellis) Le G. Troughton. 1934. "A Check-List of the Mammals Recorded From Australia." Australian Museum Memoir, vol. 6 (May 4, 1934): 1-122. Sydney, Australia: The Trustees of the Australian Museum.
Available @ https://australianmuseum.net.au/uploads/journals/17234/516_complete.pdf
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47102257

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.

Marriner, Derdriu. 25 November 2016. "Australia's Antelope Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/11/australias-tropical-antelope-kangaroo.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 December 2016. "Australia's Eastern Gray Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/australias-eastern-gray-kangaroo.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 December 2016. "Tasmanian Eastern Gray Forester Natural History Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/tasmanian-eastern-gray-forester.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 December 2016. "Australia's Western Gray Kangaroo Natural History Illustrations." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/australias-western-gray-kangaroo.html