Wallabies, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia: photo by John Ecker | pantheon photography

WALLABIES, PHILLIP ISLAND, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA: That’s right, these are wallabies and not kangaroos. Wallabies and kangaroos are similar. They are both native to Australia— marsupials, similar looking and both  make “boing, boing, boing” sounds as they hop along.  Okay, they don’t actually make that sound, but it’s pretty funny when you see them jump along and you add your own sound effects.

Kangaroos are much larger and built for speed on open terrain. Wallabies are smaller and their shorter legs are ideal for jumping through brush and forest.  The wallabies I saw on Philip Island were under three feet tall and weighed no more than 50 lbs.  Kangaroos can weigh in at 200 lbs and tower up to 8 feet. The Philip Island wallabies are known as ‘swamp’ or ‘black’ wallabies.  The two wallabies in this photo were grazing in a short brush field. I was about 40 feet from the little fellows. I moved slowly and deliberately to get that close since wallabies are a bit skittish.

Shot handheld with a Nikon D300, 70-300 DX zoom lens at 300mm, f7.1, 1/500 sec, ISO 1000. Copyright photo by John Ecker | pantheon photography.