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Post by another specialist on May 13, 2005 15:24:08 GMT
Crescent Nailtail Wallaby Onychogalea lunata Onychogalea lunata was endemic to Australia. The latest reliable records of the species were in the early 1960s. Threats Drastic population declines were suffered largely through habitat alteration by farming and grazing, and predation from introduced foxes and dogs (the clearance of thickets is thought to have increased the risk of predation on nail-tailed wallabies). These factors are thought to have resulted in the extinction of the crescent nailtail wallaby. www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php?species=15331 |
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Post by another specialist on May 13, 2005 15:25:15 GMT
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Post by Peter on May 13, 2005 17:28:00 GMT
Crescent Nailtail Wallaby Smoked out by the Aboriginals When the Crescent Nailtail Wallaby, Onychogalea lunata Gould, 1841 was chased, it would sometimes hide inside a hollow tree. This behaviour may have saved it from many predators, but not from the Aborigines. They simply built a fire under the tree and smoked the animal out.  The species lived in woodlands and plains and appeared plentiful at the time of European settlement in Australia. Between 1904 and 1907, G.C. Shortridge collected as many as 23 skins in south-western Australia for the British Museum. However, the last specimen collected from that area dates from 1908, so the decline must have been very rapid indeed. Remembered by the locals Crescent Nailtail Wallabies also occurred in central Australia, and here the species survived longer than in the south-west. It was reported to be still extant in the 1950's. But apart from an unconfirmed record in 1964, no reliable sightings have been recorded since. Probably the best source of information in the Australian wilderness are the Aborigines. Interviews showed that they remembered the animals, but had not seen them for many years. The museum collection The two specimens in the National Museum of Natural History (Leiden, the Netherlands) were collected in the 19th century: an adult male from the "Wingon Hills" (probably an error for Wongan Hills, south-western Australia) and a young of unknown provenance. Written by Dr. L.W. van den Hoek Ostende. Source: www.naturalis.nl/300pearls/. |
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Post by another specialist on May 13, 2005 17:38:21 GMT
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Post by sebbe67 on Nov 4, 2005 11:34:10 GMT
The Crescent Nail-tailed Wallaby (Onychogalea lunata) was a wallaby that lived in the woodlands and scrubs of the west and centre of Australia. It had silky fur and, like other nail-tailed wallabies, had a horny spur at the tip of its tail. It was the size of a hare and was the smallest nail-tailed wallaby. When it was chased, it tended to seek refuge in a hollow tree. It entered at the bottom, clambered up and appeared at an opening high above.
The wallaby remained common, even in agricultural districts in the south-west of Western Australia, until about 1900. It had begun a steep decline by 1908, when the last wallaby was caught in the area. The last specimen of this wallaby to be collected alive was caught in a dingo trap on the Nullarbor Plain in 1927 or 1928. Mr W.A. Mills sent it to Taronga Zoo in Sydney and the animal ended up in the Australian Museum. The species survived in the more arid parts of its distribution until the 1950s and it is thought that it became extinct at about 1956, probably due to the spread of the fox.
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Post by another specialist on Nov 4, 2005 18:10:51 GMT
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Post by another specialist on Nov 7, 2005 7:11:10 GMT
 gap in nature |
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Post by sebbe67 on Aug 14, 2006 19:54:39 GMT
The Crescent Nailtail Wallaby (Onychogalea lunata), known also as the Lunated Nailtail Wallaby, Wurrung (south-eastem Westem Australia) and Tjawalpa (western desert) is now presumed extinct. It was marginally smaller than the Bridled Nailtail Wallaby, mainly attributable to a shorter tail. The animal was generally ash grey in colour above and pale grey below, with a defined crescent like white shoulder stripe from the chest to the scapular regions. It also possessed an ill-defined, pale hip stripe and a homy nail at the tip of the tail. John Gilbert, who collected the specimens upon which John Gould erected this species in 1841, noted that it 'is found in the gum forests of the interior of Western Australia, where there are patches of thick scrub and dense thickets, in the open glades intervening between which it is occasionally seen sunning itself, but at the slightest alarm immediately betakes itself to the shelter of the thick scrub...' (Gilbert's 'forests' would today be termed woodlands.) He stated it made no nest but formed a hollow in soft ground beneath a shrub. Early naturalists recorded that the Crescent Nailtail Wallaby, or Wurrung, would sometimes run into a hollow log when chased. B. W. Leake, an early settler of the Kellerberrin district, WA, noted that it would 'make for a hollow tree with a hole in the bottom. Into this it would go, and clamber up the sides, until it got some distance up inside the tree. To procure Wurrungs for food the Aborigines used to light a fire and smoke them out.' Leake said it lived in open timbered country. It was apparently quite plentiful in the agricultural districts of the southwest of Western Australia until just after the turn of the century. G. C. Shortridge collected 23 specimens for the British Museum from near Pingelly and Wagin between 1904 and 1907 but thereafter it declined rapidly, the last recorded specimen coming from Cranbrook in 1908. Leake noted its disappearance from Kellerberrin by 1899. The Crescent Nailtail Wallaby also occurred in central Australia. The Elder expedition collected it in the Everard Ranges in northwestern South Australia in 1891. Previously, in 1888, three South Australian specimens had been sent to the British Museum by Sir George Grey, and Wood Jones later noted that it had been reported 'from the Centre' in 1884. The Horn Expedition of 1894 obtained two specimens from Alice Springs, extending the known range northward. In the 1930s Finlayson found it still occurring near the Everard Ranges as well as near the Musgrave Ranges, SA, and the Cavenagh Range, WA. Writing in 1961 he stated that it was still extant in some areas and that one had been killed between the Tarlton and Jervois ranges, NT, as late as 1956. Aborigines from the Warburton-Giles area of Western Australia recall that the Crescent Nailtail Wallaby inhabited Mulga country and areas near creeks with River Gums. Both they and Aborigines from Yuendumu, NT, state that they have not seen it for many years. The report in Ride's 'A Guide to the Native Mammals of Australia' of a 1964 specimen from near the Warburton Range, WA, cannot now be substantiated. www.australianstamp.com/Coin-web/feature/nature/nailtail.htm |
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Post by another specialist on Aug 15, 2006 5:16:57 GMT
The above is contains some useful information for sure. I found it a while back but never posted the contents. Thanks for pasting the text here for all of us to see. |
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Post by another specialist on Oct 29, 2006 11:32:55 GMT
CRESCENT NAIL-TAILED WALLABY Onychogalea lunata  Macleay Museum |
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Post by another specialist on Dec 5, 2006 10:53:58 GMT
CRESCENT NAIL-TAILED WALLABY Onychogalea lunata Onychogalea lunata was endemic to Australia. The latest reliable records of the species were in the early 1960s. Drastic population declines were suffered largely through habitat alteration by farming and grazing, and predation from introduced foxes and dogs (the clearance of thickets is thought to have increased the risk of predation on nail-tailed wallabies). These factors are thought to have resulted in the extinction of the crescent nailtail wallaby. |
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Post by another specialist on Dec 5, 2006 11:04:23 GMT
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Post by another specialist on Dec 5, 2006 11:27:17 GMT
The Crescent Nail-tailed Wallaby (Onychogalea lunata) was a wallaby that lived in the woodlands and scrubs of the west and centre of Australia. It had silky fur and, like other nail-tailed wallabies, had a horny spur at the tip of its tail. It was the size of a hare and was the smallest nail-tailed wallaby. When it was chased, it tended to seek refuge in a hollow tree. It entered at the bottom, clambered up and appeared at an opening high above. The wallaby remained common, even in agricultural districts in the south-west of Western Australia, until about 1900. It had begun a steep decline by 1908, when the last wallaby was caught in the area. The last specimen of this wallaby to be collected alive was caught in a dingo trap on the Nullarbor Plain in 1927 or 1928. Mr W.A. Mills sent it to Taronga Zoo in Sydney and the animal ended up in the Australian Museum. The species survived in the more arid parts of its distribution until the 1950s and it is thought that it became extinct at about 1956, probably due to the spread of the fox. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onychogalea_lunata |
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Post by Peter on Apr 20, 2007 14:17:44 GMT
A while ago I recieved the following email:
Anyone any further information? I will also contact her.
EDIT: Personally I think she mean the rediscovery of the bridled nailtail wallaby (Onychogalea fraenata) in 1973.
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Post by another specialist on Apr 20, 2007 21:16:54 GMT
I believe your right Peter the rediscovery is for the bridled nailtail wallaby (Onychogalea fraenata) not Crescent Nailtail Wallaby. Not seen or heard anything about this species being rediscovered.
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Post by sebbe67 on Apr 21, 2007 10:05:25 GMT
Seems quite strange that a population of Onychogalea lunata was rediscovered and hardly anyone noticed it, but perhaps be that the population was discovered in a private estate, the estate owner contacted the goverment and they choosed to start a breeding program in the secret, without the public knowing about it. I know  , its a longshot but during my time in Australia I visited several similar breeding programs in Queensland (top secret which species involved ;D, could send a discrete PM to those intrested) which remains unknown to public, nothing mega rare like this but still several very rare species (mostly species rare in Queensland but some rare on the whole continent). |
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Post by another specialist on Apr 21, 2007 10:09:04 GMT
Yes please sebbe - all of interest to me
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Post by another specialist on Sept 4, 2007 9:40:37 GMT
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Post by another specialist on Sept 4, 2007 20:02:42 GMT
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Post by another specialist on Sept 10, 2007 14:29:47 GMT
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, its a longshot but during my time in Australia I visited several similar breeding programs in Queensland (top secret which species involved ;D, could send a discrete PM to those intrested) which remains unknown to public, nothing mega rare like this but still several very rare species (mostly species rare in Queensland but some rare on the whole continent). 
