‘Incredible sighting’ of wallaby with ‘rare’ abnormal fur in Australia. See it
While walking through a nature reserve in Australia, a visitor noticed a flash of white and some movement in the trees. They started filming and ended up recording a wallaby with abnormal fur.
Park officials described the footage as “rare” and an “incredible sighting.”
A “local walker” visited a nature reserve in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in August and encountered an “unusually-coloured swamp wallaby,” the ACT Parks and Conservation Service said in a Sept. 7 Instagram post.
The visitor later sent the video to park officials who identified the swamp wallaby as likely being a “rare” case of acromelanism, “which means its fur colour is sensitive to body temperature,” an ACT Government spokesperson told McClatchy News on Sept. 16.
“Acromelanism is a rare genetic mutation where the enzymes that make pigments (coloured fur) don’t work if they’re too warm,” the spokesperson said via email. “Where body temperature is warmer (such as the wallaby’s chest), the fur is white. Where the body/skin is cooler (such as the ears, nose and tail), the fur colour is normal — which in this case is dark brown.”
Swamp wallabies are “small” and “stocky” marsupials that normally have “dark brown fur, often with lighter rusty patches on the belly, chest and base of the ears,” according to the Australian Museum.
The video shows the odd-colored swamp wallaby hopping through the trees and pausing behind a fallen log. Its chest and limbs appear pale white, while its tail, ears and face appear darker brown.
“You’re effectively looking at a wallaby heat map,” park officials said in the Instagram post.
“Acromelanism is considered rare in wild mammals,” the spokesperson said. ACT park officials are “not aware of any other reports of it in swamp wallabies… It appears to be rarer in wallabies than other abnormal colourings such as albinism or leucism.”
Still, park officials “can’t be certain what’s caused this wallaby’s unique colouring from just a video,” the spokesperson said.
Officials did not provide the exact location of the swamp wallaby sighting. The Australian Capital Territory is in southern Australia, includes the capital city of Canberra and is roughly midway between Sydney and Melbourne.
This story was originally published September 17, 2025 at 10:25 AM with the headline "‘Incredible sighting’ of wallaby with ‘rare’ abnormal fur in Australia. See it."
