The Robertsdale Wallaby
The Robertsdale wallaby (Macropus americanus) is a medium-sized macropod marsupial that grows to between three and four feet in length, including a long, stiff tail that may measure a third of its length or more. Adult males may attain a weight of forty pounds or more with females considerably smaller, rarely weighing more than twenty-five to thirty pounds. The animal is generally pale brown to greyish or even a even a rusty red in color, with distinctive white markings on the face, a white underbelly and black paws equipped with powerful claws. More so than most other species in its genus, the Robertsdale wallaby is an extremely social animal and historically lived in great herds millions strong. However, today the wallabies are able only to live only in fragmented family groups numbering five to ten individuals.
Unlike other wallaby species, the Robertsdale wallaby is primarily nocturnal, feeding out in the open at night but bedding down in cover to rest during the day. It is believed that historically the wallabies were active during the day, but that when confronted by human persecution they were forced to adopt more seclusive habits to avoid being seen.
Also unlike many mainland wallabies which by and large live in warm, arid climates, the Robertsdale wallaby carries many adaptations to a cold and damp environment, such as a dense, water-repellant, insulating pelt and fur on the pads of their feet to protect them from frostbite. The Robertsdale wallaby is a capable swimmer and likely arrived in North America several million years ago under its own power by swimming from Australia when sea levels were lower during the last ice age. Robertsdale wallabies also carry a much more generalized digestive system than many other marsupials, enabling them to feed on a much wider variety of vegetation than other wallaby species. Even so, the plants that grow in the sandy soil of the area where the species has been forced to live are very low in nutrients and thus the wallaby must often supplement its nutritionally-lacking diet with fish it finds washed up on the beach, birds eggs, nestling rodents and even human refuse such as discarded fast food hamburgers or chicken nuggets it may find in city dumpsters to obtain the nutrients absent in its normal diet of twigs, low-growing grasses, mushrooms and herbs. It is believed to be the only wallaby species that does so.
Robertsdale wallabies breed only once per year, in late summer. During the mating season males, known as bucks, collect harems of females, known as does, which he defends from other males at all costs. Once mating is completed, a single offspring, known as a jiggle or a puplet, is born the following winter. The puplet grows nestled safely in its mother's pouch for eight months, emerging for the first time in early summer of the following year, when it begins to nibble the plants it will survive off of as an adult. By the end of the year it is fully independent, though it will not breed for two or three more years, unlike most other wallabies which will typically breed their second season. This is due primarily to the harsh environment the wallaby lives in and poor diet it subsists on, causing the wallaby to mature slower than its warm-climate relatives.