Source and Additional Information

Animal Diversity Web
 
Kathleen Bachynski
Some rights reserved

Brush-tailed rock-wallabies are social animals that form small colonies with dominance hierarchies. Individuals have overlapping home ranges with exclusive den sites. Females are gregarious; they often share den sites with their female relatives and they regularly groom each other.

Rock-wallabies maintain an attachment to a precisely defined habitat with a strict social organization. One observed population of brush-tailed rock-wallabies maintained, during both good and bad years, an adult population of five to seven individuals by violently evicting young soon after weaning. In captivity, this means that weaned young may be killed if they are unable to escape from the enclosure.

Males are rarely within 5 meters of another male. When males are in close proximity, there is almost always a violent interaction. Females are more tolerant of the close proximity of other females than are males of other males. Females do, however, commonly displace one another and engage in agonistic interactions. Additionally, females have been seen driving away female and sub-adult male intruders from the vicinity of their refuges.

Due to the difficulties of nocturnal observations, much more remains to be learned about the behavior of brush-tailed rock-wallabies. (Carter and Goldizen, 2003; Cronin, 2000; Jarman and Bayne, 1997; Lavery and Kirkpatrick, 1985)

Home Range

Adult males have been found to have significantly larger nocturnal ranges than females, possibly due to their greater energetic requirements or in order to increase their mating opportunities. Range size is likely affected by the productivity and nutritional value of vegetation at different sites. High levels of home range overlap are probably due to patchy distributions of resources, which leads to aggregation at sources of shelter or food. (Laws and Goldizen, 2003)

Communication and Perception

Source and Additional Information

Animal Diversity Web
 
Kathleen Bachynski
Some rights reserved

Petrogale penicillata engages in allogrooming, where one animal bites and licks the fur of another animal, which may serve a role in reinforcing dominance status. Other examples of communicative behaviors include making vocalizations (a hissing cough sound), staring intensely, and aggressive behaviors such as nose jabbing (one animal thrusting its nose toward another animal). Males may examine potential female mates by approaching the female and sniffing her rump or cloaca.

Additionally, some evidence suggests that adult males deposit scent marks within their area of control. (Bulinski, Goldney, and Bauer, 1997; Jarman and Bayne, 1997)