Brush kangaroos
| Brush kangaroos | ||||||||||||
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Bettongia gaimardi ♀ |
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| Bettongia | ||||||||||||
| Gray , 1837 |
Brush kangaroos ( Bettongia ) are a genus of marsupial mammals with six species from the family of rat kangaroos (Potoroidae). They owe their name to the brush-like hair comb on the tail.
description
Brush kangaroos have a small, compact body that looks like a rat except for their long, strong hind legs . Their fur is gray or gray-brown, characteristic are the small, round ears and the hairless tip of the nose. The front paws have claws suitable for digging. The animals reach a head trunk length of 28 to 45 centimeters and a weight of 1.1 to 2.3 kilograms.
Distribution and way of life
Brush kangaroos used to be distributed over large parts of Australia , today all species only inhabit a fraction of their previous range. Their habitat are grasslands and forest areas, they are nocturnal. The animals mostly build grass nests, transporting the building material with their curled tail, whereas the species B. lesueur digs earth burrows or moves into abandoned rabbit burrows. While this species sometimes forms harem groups, where a male and several females inhabit a large burrow, the other species live solitary.
Brush kangaroos eat mostly mushrooms, which they dig up with their front paws. To a small extent, they also eat roots, tubers, carrion and possibly also live animals.
Reproduction
Females have a well-developed pouch with four teats. The mating time and frequency depends on the location, in warmer regions the female can give birth up to three times a year. After around 21 days of gestation, one, rarely two, young animals are born. As with many rat kangaroos, their birth is delayed: Immediately after birth, the female mates again, but the newly created embryo only grows when the old young animal is weaned or dies. Young animals stay in the pouch for around four months and are sexually mature at seven months. Life expectancy is a maximum of eleven years.
threat
Brush kangaroos are all endangered marsupials. The reasons for this lie in the food competition from introduced wild rabbits, the conversion of their habitat into pastures, hunting and stalking by introduced predators.
species
- The Tasmanian brush rat kangaroo ( Bettongia gaimardi ) has a light brown fur, and the hair is longer than that of the other species. Originally the species occurred in large parts of southern Australia, the subspecies B. g. gaimardi on the mainland became extinct around 1910, only the subspecies B. g. cuniculus on Tasmania lives to this day, but is not considered endangered.
- The Lesueur brush kangaroo ( Bettongia lesueur ) or Lesueur rat kangaroo differs from the other species in that it also digs burrows and lives there in harem groups. It was once spread all over Australia, but for the reasons mentioned above it became extinct on the mainland in the 1960s and now only lives on several small islands off the coast of Western Australia . The species is considered endangered, especially by feral domestic cats .
- The brush- tailed rat kangaroo ( Bettongia penicillata ) is characterized by the pronounced brush comb on the tail. In the past the species was widespread in the entire south of Australia, today it only lives in a small area in the extreme southwest of Western Australia. While the nominate form has been eradicated since the 1920s, the population of Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi is "critically endangered" according to the IUCN .
- The northern brush rat kangaroo ( Bettongia tropica ) was known for a long time from only six specimens, all of which were found before 1932, and was already considered extinct. However, a small population has been rediscovered in Queensland , and breeding programs are also intended to secure the existence of the species that is considered "critically endangered".
- The Nullarbor Brush Kangaroo ( Bettongia pusilla ) is only known through subfossil bone material.
- The desert brush rat kangaroo ( Bettongia anhydra ) is only known for two skulls.
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, ISBN 0801857899 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Felis catus . In: Database of the "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species" of the "Invasive Species Specialist Group" of the IUCN, accessed on February 2, 2015.