The Banded Hare-wallaby or Mernine (Lagostrophus fasciatus) is a marsupial

Marsupial

Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, with the remaining 100 found in the Americas, primarily in South America, but with thirteen in Central...

 that is currently found on the Islands of Bernier

Bernier Island

Bernier Island is one of three islands that comprise the Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia.It was a hospital location in the early 1900s....

 and Dorre off western Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. A small population has recently been established on Faure Island

Faure Island

Faure Island is a 58 km2 island pastoral lease and nature reserve, east of the Francois Peron National Park on the Peron Peninsula, in Shark Bay, Western Australia. It lies in line with the Monkey Mia resort to the west, and the Wooramel River on the eastern shore of Shark Bay...

 and it appears to have been successful. Evidence suggested that the Mernine was the only living member of the Sthenurine

Sthenurinae

Sthenurinae is a sub-family within the marsupial family Macropodidae, meaning 'short faced kangaroos'. No members of this subfamily remain extant today, with all becoming extinct by the late Pleistocene. Procoptodon goliah, the largest macropodid known to have existed, was a sthenurine...

 subfamily, and a recent osteology-based phylogeny of Macropodids found that the Banded Hare-wallaby was indeed a bastion of an ancient lineage, agreeing with other (molecular) appraisals of the evolutionary history of L. fasciatus. However, the authors analysis did not support the placement of the Mernine within Sthenurinae, but suggest it belongs to a plesiomorphic clade

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 which branched off from other Macropodids in the early Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 and put forward the new subfamily Lagostrophinae. This new subfamily includes the Banded Hare-wallaby and the fossil genus Troposodon.

Behavior

The Banded Hare-wallaby is nocturnal and tends to live in groups at nesting sites; this species is quite social. Nesting occurs in thickets under very dense brush. This macropod prefers to live in Acacia ligulata scrub. Males are extremely aggressive. The average Banded Hare-wallaby weighs 1.7 kg, with females weighing more than males. It measures about 800mm from the head to the end of the tail, with the tail almost the same length (averaging 375mm) as the body. The Banded Hare-wallaby has a short nose. Long, grey fur is speckled with yellow and silver and fades into a light grey on the underbelly. There is no color variation on the face or head, the coloring is solid grey. Dark, horizontal stripes of fur start at the middle of the back and stop at the base of the tail.

Distribution

The species were once found on the mainland, in the southwest of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

 and South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

, but they are now restricted in their distribution to Bernier Island

Bernier Island

Bernier Island is one of three islands that comprise the Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia.It was a hospital location in the early 1900s....

 and Dorre Island

Dorre Island

Dorre Island is one of three islands that make up the Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia...

 in Western Australia. Although the Banded Hare-wallaby was once found across the south-western portion of Australia, it is believed to have been extinct on the mainland since 1963, and the last recorded evidence of the Banded Hare-wallaby on the Australian mainland was in 1906. It is possible that the devastation of the species can be attributed to the loss of habitat to the clearing of vegetation, the loss of food (due to competition with other animals), and predators.

Diversity

Two subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 are recognized.

• Lagostrophus fasciatus fasciatus
• Lagostrophus fasciatus baudinettei

Feeding

This diprotodontian is a vegetarian and receives most of its water from food. This species prefers to eat various grasses, fruit, and other vegetation. Male aggression is usually brought out in competition for food with other males and is very rarely expressed toward females.

Reproduction

Mating season starts in December and ends in September. The Banded Hare-wallaby reaches maturity at one year of age, breeding usually starts in the second year. Gestation appears to last several months and mothers generally raise one young each year, although it is possible for females to produce two young per year. Young remain in their mother's pouch for six months and continue to be weaned for another three months. In situations where a mother's young dies, some mothers have an extra embryo to possibly rear another.