Wallaby Swimming Video

Wallabies are marsupials that usually live in drier areas of Australia where there are few large bodies of water. Oddly, however, they are very confident swimmers. There are reports of numerous sightings of wallabies swimming out at sea.

It is generally assumed that wallabies 'dog-paddle' like most other animals. But a research paper, the only definitive work on the subject, published in 1974 by George R. Wilson in the journal Search, seems to debunk this assumption.

Most quadruped animals 'dog-paddle' by moving opposing front and back limbs in union (front left and back right, then front right and back left, and so forth) providing them with propulsion through the water. This is similar to the way these four-legged animals walk on land.

The wallaby, which is a biped animal that moves on two-legs, also swims paddling with all four limbs. But it moves its front limbs and back limbs on the same side in union (front left and back left, then front right and back right and so forth). It also swings its powerful tail back and forth, like a crocodile, providing a little additional propulsion. The research also found that most of the forward propulsion was provided by the wallaby's front limbs. The back limbs and tail were mainly used for balance.

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