Lake Mackey Hare-Wallaby (Lagorchestes asomatus)

The Lake Mackey Hare-Wallaby, also known as Central Hare-Wallaby, is a not well-known small kangaroo species that was inhabiting the arid desert areas in the Northern Territory of Australia.

The species was described in 1943; it is known from a single specimen that had been caught in 1931 or 1932; only the skull was prepared and preserved.

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The Natives of the region knew the species very well, they had many names for it and could still recall many facts about it in the 1980s.:

“fur soft, long and grey …, long hair on top of feet, extending to the ground …, tail relatively short and thickened, a small wallaby similar in size to B. lesuer [Lesueur’s Rat-Kangaroo (Bettongia lesueur (Quoy & Gaimard))], hopped ‘like a kangaroo’. Many people referred to it as the ‘quiet one’ or ‘deaf one’ or sometimes ‘stupid one’ because it did not flush from its shelter. It was hunted by tracking to its hide and killed by spearing. Sometimes it could be caught by hand. The fur was spun to make belts.” [1]

According to the same native people, the species must have disappeared sometimes during the 1960’s.

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References:  

[1] Andrew A. Burbridge; Ken A. Johnson; Phillip J. Fuller; R. I. Southgate: Aboriginal knowledge of the mammals of the central deserts of Australia. Australian Wildlife Research 15: 9-39. 1988

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edited: 24.02.2024