The tammar wallaby is a small macropod native to South and Western
Australia. Though its geographical range has been severely reduced since
European colonisation, the tammar is common within its reduced range and
is listed as of Least Concern by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature. It has been introduced to New Zealand and
reintroduced to some areas of Australia where it had been previously
eradicated. Skull differences distinguish tammars from Western
Australia, Kangaroo Island and mainland South Australia, making them
distinct populations groups or possibly different subspecies. Around the
size of a rabbit, the tammar is among the smallest of the wallabies. Its
coat is largely grey. It has colour vision, can drink seawater, and can
hop efficiently using tendons that act like springs. A nocturnal
species, it spends nighttime in grassland habitat and daytime in shrub.
It is very gregarious and has a seasonal, promiscuous mating pattern. A
female tammar can nurse a joey in her pouch while keeping an embryo in
her uterus. The tammar is a model species for research on marsupials,
and on mammals in general. It is one of many organisms whose genome has
been sequenced.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammar_wallaby>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1800:
War of the Second Coalition: French forces under General Jean
Moreau defeated the Austrians and Bavarians under Archduke John in
Hohenlinden, near Munich, forcing the Austrians to sign an armistice.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hohenlinden>
1834:
The German Customs Union instituted the first regular census in
Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census_in_Germany>
1904:
Himalia, the largest irregular satellite of Jupiter, was
discovered by astronomer Charles Dillon Perrine at the Lick Observatory
in San Jose, California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalia_(moon)>
1984:
Methyl isocyanate and other toxic chemicals were accidentally
released from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal,
India, causing the world's worst industrial disaster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster>
1992:
During extreme weather conditions, the oil tanker Aegean Sea
ran aground off the coast of Galicia, Spain, spilling 67,000 tonnes of
light crude oil.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegean_Sea_oil_spill>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
fleeting:
Passing quickly.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fleeting>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The mind of man is capable of anything — because everything is
in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all?
Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valour, rage — who can tell? — but
truth — truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and
shudder — the man knows, and can look on without a wink.
--Heart of Darkness
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness>