Antilopine Kangaroo

About the Antilopine Kangaroo

The antilopine kangaroo (Osphranter antilopinus), also known as the antilopine wallaroo or the antilopine wallaby, is a species of macropod found in northern Australia: in Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, the Top End of the Northern Territory, and the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is a locally common, gregarious grazer.

The description of the species by John Gould was published in 1842, one of four new species of 'kangaroos' presented before the Zoological Society of London in 1841. The type location was given as Port Essington. The author assigned the new species to the genus Osphranter,

a taxon later submerged as a subgenus of Macropus, and recognised an affinity with his earlier description of Macropus robustus (known as the common wallaroo or euro). A taxonomic restructuring in 2019, based on genetic analysis, promoted Osphranter back to genus level, redefining the antilopine kangaroo and the red kangaroo, among others, as species within the genus Osphranter.

The common names of the species include antilopine wallaroo, antilopine kangaroo and antilopine wallaby. The specific epithet antilopinus was proposed by Gould for the resemblance of the fur to... Wikipedia →