How Do Wallabies Mate?

How do wallabies mate? Male Wallabies build a reputation within the mob to establish their right to mate with females. How do wallabies mate? Wallabies breed when there are sufficient resources available to support the female Wallabies and its joey. Females are capable of embryonic diapause which is a method to delay birth until conditions are favorable. In this article, you’ll learn how do wallabies mate?

Ready, Mate, Go!

How do wallabies mate? Before Wallabies are ready to mate, male Wallabies have to fight to get access to females. Only the strongest Wallabies will be given access to the females of a mob.

Wallabies Boxers

How do wallabies mate? You may have heard that Wallabies are excellent fighters – they are good boxers and also use their claws. They do not only do that to defend themselves, but they also use these techniques to determine their position in the mob. It is used to established dominance because the most dominant males are most likely to get access to females.

They are polygynous and ritualized fighting determines which male gets exclusive access to females. During these boxing matches, they hit each other with their forepaws and use their feet to kick the opponent. They try to push the opponent over.

Breeding Season

How do wallabies mate? The breeding season of red Wallabies is year-round whereas eastern grey Wallabies breed all year round with a peak in summer. Similarly, western grey Wallabies breed all year round with a reduction in births during winter.

Wallabies only breed if the conditions are favorable. Conditions such as drought and when food is hard to find suppress the fertility cycle of most female Wallabies. This is a clever mechanism because newborn joeys would most likely not survive these harsh conditions.

How do wallabies mate? Scientists believe that just about 50 % of young Wallabies reach the age of two years and get older in perfect conditions, during drought juvenile mortality can be up to 100%. If conditions are favorable, Wallabies are basically pregnant all the time. Many female Wallabies can to delay birth until their previous joey has left the pouch. This is called embryonic diapause.

Embryonic Diapause in Wallaby

How do wallabies mate? The ability to delay birth is called embryonic diapause. Female Wallabies can completely stop the development of their young embryo and the normal gestation period is extended until the previous joey has either left the pouch or died, and outside environmental conditions are favorable to giving birth. Interestingly, while embryonic diapause is rare in eastern grey Wallabies, female western grey Wallabies do not know embryonic diapause.

Wallabies Mating

How do wallabies mate? Ritualized boxing fights are used to determine the dominant male of the mob. Typically, only the dominant males mate with females.

Males use their smell to determine which female Wallabies is sexually available. Then they stay close and start mating. It is not always the alpha male of the mob that gets females pregnant. Some male Wallabies do take the chance when the alpha male is not watching. This also benefits genetic diversity.

How do wallabies mate? Wallabies mate the typical way. Female Wallabies release an egg from their ovary and after mating, it may become fertilized by sperm – thus egg and sperm unite.

In contrast to other mammals, no placental connection is formed. Wallabies have a yolk-type placenta and the marsupial egg has to consume the yolk – once the yolk is consumed it needs to be born. That’s why marsupials have ultra-short pregnancies and give birth to blind, extremely immature, almost embryonic, young joeys. They have to complete their development in the pouch attached to their mother’s teat. This means that their pregnancy is only about 30 days long.

How Joeys Are Born

How do wallabies mate? Wallabies give birth to their young joey after a gestation period of about 30 days. Due to embryonic diapause, mating could have occurred many months ago. Female Wallabies only give birth to their young when their previous joey has left the pouch.

Before birth, female Wallabies start to clean the pouch. This starts about 24 hours before birth and they simply put their snout in the pouch and start to lick out the pouch to clean it.

The Labor Process

How do wallabies mate? To give birth, the female Wallabies sits down and the joey pops out of the birth canal. After 30 days it is barely developed and uses its instincts and better-developed forelimbs and claws to find the way into the pouch. It’s not a long way but it is hard work for the blind, extremely tiny and hairless young joey. It is noteworthy that the fetus starts to move its forelimbs similar to movements required to crawl into the pouch about three days prior to birth. Its hindlimbs are barely developed and are only buds. Its color is pink and only the size of a jellybean. After its birth, the climb into the pouch usually takes between three to five minutes.

How do wallabies mate? Once the joey arrived in the pouch, it attaches itself to one of the teats where the mother produces milk based on Joey’s needs for the next few months. After giving birth to their joey, females are ready to mate again. This is why Wallabies are practically pregnant as long as they are fertile.

Becoming a grown-up Wallabies and wallaroo

How do wallabies mate? Joeys undergo incredible development. In the beginning, you can barely imagine it’s a wallaroo. To become a grown-up Wallabies, a joey only drinks milk for the first few months in the pouch. Inside the pouch, a joey is protected from threats such as dingoes and eagles. It will take about six months until it starts to look out of its mother’s pouch.

Joeys first act clumsily when they leave the pouch for the first time, but they’ve got time to exercise and eventually they get better and better. Joeys practice hopping, jumping, and learn what they can eat. They finally leave the pouch for good at about 10 months, but they continue to suckle until they are about 18 months old.

Sexual Maturity

How do wallabies mate? Female eastern grey Wallabies sexually mature between 17 and 28 months, males mature at around 25 months. They are also sexually mature at 16 months, males mature at 31 months. Female red Wallabies sexually mature between 15 to 20 months, males mature at 2 to 3 years old.

Then, the cycle starts again.

Keep In Mind

How do wallabies mate? Keep in mind that joeys poop and pee in the pouch. It can get smelly sometimes and therefore the mother cleans out the pouch by licking it out from time to time. Unlike female Wallabies, male Wallabies do not have a pouch. They cannot produce milk and they, therefore, do not need a pouch.