The temporal character of feeding behaviour in captive tammar wallabies (Macropus eugenii Desmarest)

Four tammar wallabies, maintained in a fixed 12:12 light:dark cycle, were f ed ad libitum, one of three foods, of differing nutrient density and fibre content, consecutively, each for a period of two weeks. During the second w eek, food consumption was assessed daily and the temporal feeding pattern w as monitored by visible and infrared video recording. Apart from a short re st period around noon, feeding continued throughout the 24-hour cycle, peak ing crepuscularly. Total daily feeding time corrected to metabolic body wei ght was significantly longer, but dry-matter intake corrected to metabolic body weight was significantly lower than that of larger macropod species, i ndicating greater investment in chewing. Feed-event duration, inter-feed-ev ent interval, rate of feeding, and dry matter intake all increased signific antly on pelleted foods of low nutritional density. Rate of feeding and fee d-event duration increased significantly on diced carrot such that dry-matt er intake was not significantly different to that on high-quality pelleted food. Survivorship curves of inter-feed-event intervals were predominantly linear. This and the consistently higher positive correlations between the duration of individual feed events and inter-feed-event intervals than betw een meals and inter-meal intervals, indicated a nibbling rather than a meal -based feeding strategy. Levels of correlation of feed-event duration with inter-feed-event interval were generally low but there was a significant in crease in positive correlation when food of lower quality was given. The du ration of successive feed events tended to increase on low-quality and decr ease on high-quality food more consistently than did successive inter-feed- event intervals.