Brush-tailed rat kangaroo

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Brush-tailed rat kangaroo
Bettongia penicillata (Woylie) 1.jpg

Brush-tailed rat kangaroo ( Bettongia penicillata )

Systematics
Subclass : Marsupials (Marsupialia)
Superordinate : Australidelphia
Order : Diprotodontia
Family : Rat kangaroos (Potoroidae)
Genre : Brush kangaroos ( Bettongia )
Type : Brush-tailed rat kangaroo
Scientific name
Bettongia penicillata
Gray , 1837

The brush tail rat kangaroo ( Bettongia penicillata ), also known as the brush rat kangaroo or brush tail rat kangaroo , is a marsupial from the rat kangaroo family (Potoroidae). A distinction is made between two subspecies, the eastern brush-tailed rat kangaroo ( Bettongia penicillata penicillata ), which has been considered extinct since 1923, and the western brush-tailed rat kangaroo ( Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi ), which is known as Woylie in Australia. The English common name is derived from the term walyu from the language of the Noongar - Aborigines . The eastern subspecies was described by John Edward Gray in 1837 and the western in 1841 by George Robert Waterhouse , who named it after the British naturalist William Ogilby .

features

Museum copy

The brush-tailed rat kangaroo reaches a head-torso length of 28.9 to 36 cm, a tail length of 25 to 36 cm and a weight of 0.8 to 1.8 kg. The back fur is gray-brown, the peritoneum is lighter yellowish-gray. A pale stripe runs across the hips. The face, limbs and tail are brownish. The tail is light on the underside and darkens towards the end. Towards the tip, the top of the tail has a protruding, dark, brush-like tuft of fur. The diploid set of chromosomes is 22.

Distribution area

Distribution map: The brush-tailed rat kangaroo used to be widespread in southern and northwestern Australia (yellow area), today it only occurs in a few places (red dots)

The brush-tailed rat kangaroo was originally widespread in the arid and semi-arid habitats of southern and northwestern Australia. The natural range of this species was divided into two parts. The southern part extended over the southwest of Western Australia over the Nullarbor Plain in the south of South Australia and northwest over the state of Victoria to the Great Dividing Range in the central region of New South Wales . The northern part comprised the Pilbara in Western Australia, the Great Sand Desert and the Great Victoria Desert in the north of South Australia, and the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory . In the early 1970s, the distribution area had shrunk to three small areas in the southwest of Western Australia. Since then, reintroduction projects have been taking place where new populations are being established in Western Australia as well as in South Australia and New South Wales.

Occurrences of the eastern brush-tailed rat kangaroos are known from the states of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales as well as from the island of St. Francis Island in the Nuyts Archipelago in the Great Australian Bight .

A specimen that Carl Sophus Lumholtz collected in 1884 at Coomooboolaroo in the Dawson Valley in Queensland was initially mistaken for the western subspecies of the brush-tailed rat kangaroo. During an examination of Lumholtz's specimen in 1967, Norman Arthur Wakefield found that it differs from the brush-tailed rat kangaroo and so he used it as type material for a new species, which he first described as the northern brush-rat kangaroo ( Bettongia tropica ) .

habitat

The brush-tailed rat kangaroo inhabits dry hard -leaved forests and woodland areas with dense undergrowth from sea level to at altitudes of 300 m. Historically, it was found in a larger area of ​​arid and semi-arid habitats, including Spinifex grassland, mallee, and scrubland. It prefers well-drained soils.

Eating behavior

The brush-tailed rat kangaroo feeds mainly on mushrooms, with truffle-like mushrooms being preferred. The underground fruiting bodies are excavated with the strong claws of the front feet. The rat kangaroos can only digest these mushrooms indirectly. In part of your stomach, the fungi are broken down by bacteria that produce the nutrients that are digested in the rest of the stomach and small intestine. When the brush-tailed rat kangaroo was still widespread, it likely played an important role in the spread of fungal spores in desert ecosystems.

Other food components are roots, tubers, seeds, plant exudates and invertebrates. There are seasonal and geographical differences in food intake, which reflect the availability of mushrooms. It is also known that they create intermediate stores for seeds and that they do not need access to free water.

Reproductive behavior

The females reach sexual maturity at ten months, the males at twelve months. The females can reproduce continuously, with one young per litter and up to three young per year. In the females there is embryonic dormancy. They usually mate again a few hours after the first embryo is born. The sexual cycle lasts 22 to 23 days and the gestation period 21 days. After birth, the baby spends three to five months in its mother's pouch. It is weaned after four to five months. After weaning, the young will spend a few months in the mother's nesting zone before they leave the territory.

Activity pattern

The brush-tailed rat kangaroo is nocturnal. It spends the day alone in its nest, searches for food at night or sometimes at dusk, and returns to its nest before dawn. The elaborate nests are well hidden. They are erected in a shallow hollow that is under thick vegetation or at the base of bushes or tussock grasses. The egg-shaped nests have only one entrance. The outer layer consists of grass and bark. The interior is lined with finely shredded plant material. The curled tail with the brush-like tip is used to transport the nest material. The brush-tailed rat kangaroos have several nests in their territory, of which three to four nests can occasionally be in use at once. The use of the nest is accidental and the animals rarely stay in a nest for more than three days.

Migration and social behavior

The brush-tailed rat kangaroo lives primarily as a solitary animal. Both males and females behave very aggressively towards their peers. Males claim territorial areas of 28 to 43 hectares, females areas of 15 to 28 hectares. The area sizes vary depending on the quality of the habitat and population density. In the districts there is a core nesting zone of two to four hectares, which can partly overlap between the sexes, but not in the case of male members. There is greater overlap in the larger feeding grounds, both within and between the sexes. The males migrate more than the females, with individual specimens having traveled distances of up to 9 km.

Extinction of the eastern brush-tailed rat kangaroo

In the mid-19th century, the eastern brush-tailed rat kangaroo was still common in New South Wales and South Australia. John Gould wrote in a contemporary contribution in 1863:

“The eastern part of Australia, especially the inside of the mountain ranges in New South Wales, is the true habitat of this species. […] I often observed them in the Liverpool Plains and on the banks of the Namoi from its source to its confluence with the Gwydir ; but I couldn't find them between the mountain ranges and the coast. "

Gould added that the Aborigines rarely went past the grass nests in the ground without spotting them. So it was possible for them to kill the sleeping animals almost without exception by throwing a battle ax or a heavy club. Charles W. Brazenor noticed in March 1937 that the brush- tailed rat kangaroo was last observed in Victoria in 1857 and that there are few museum specimens from Victoria in the National Museum of Melbourne. In February 1937 Albert Sherbourne commented on LeSeouf

"Apparently it can no longer be found in eastern Australia."

and in April of that year, Ellis Le Geyt noticed Troughton

"It is now very rare or extinct in New South Wales and Victoria."

In 1924, Frederic Wood Jones (1879–1954) described the extinction of the brush rat kangaroo on St. Francis Island in the Great Australian Bight. He considered these animals, of which no museum samples exist, to be an independent, undescribed form, Bettongia sp. In 1958, the population of St. Francis Island was assigned to the eastern subspecies of the brush-tailed rat kangaroo after a reassessment by Hedley Herbert Finlayson (1895-1991). Wood Jones noted in his notes:

“On St. Francis Island in the Nuyts Archipelago, during the time of the residents present, there lived a large number of a species that apparently belonged to the genus Bettongia . Since the mammalian fauna on the islands of the bay was so different from the species that inhabit the mainland in so many cases, it is worth recording what has been identified in relation to this interesting and recently extinct animal.

When the island was first settled forty years ago, rat kangaroos or tungoos swarmed there. The animals did not seem to create hollows, but lived in the undergrowth. Often they would hop onto the farm of the only family settling on the island and eat the bread and other food that was thrown from the tables. They didn't seem to be nocturnal and they didn't even seem shy of the human intruders on the island. Their only offense was their fondness for the family's garden products. Cats were introduced to eradicate the tungoos, and they did their job to the full. What species the animal belonged to will never be known, and the fact of their destruction in this way is much to be regretted.

There are many islands near St. Francis where some of the members of the original colony could have been transported to give them a chance to survive.

The story is important from the perspective of legislation for the protection of island saunas, as it clearly shows how quickly and how completely an interesting island fauna can be destroyed and lost forever to science. "

By 1900 the population on St. Francis Island was wiped out.

In South Australia, where traders were still selling dozens of copies for nine pence per capita in Adelaide on Sunday afternoons in the early 20th century, the brush-tailed rat kangaroo has been disappearing since 1923.

Status of the western brush-tailed rat kangaroo

According to the zoologist Guy Chester Shortridge from 1910, the western brush-tailed rat kangaroo is said to have been very common in south-western Australia at the beginning of the 20th century. At the beginning of the 1970s, it only survived in three small areas in southwestern Western Australia, in Dryandra Woodland, in Perup Nature Reserve and in Tutanning Nature Reserve. The decline in the brush-tailed rat kangaroo had various causes, including the effects of grazing cattle, changes in habitat through agricultural use, stalking by introduced predators such as red fox and domestic cats, and presumably the changes in the course of bushfires .

Thanks to the extensive eradication of the red fox, the population in this region increased again. In the period that followed, 46 resettlement projects took place in Western Australia, including in the Batalling Forest, the Boyagin Nature Reserve, the Julimar Conservation Park, the Lake Magenta Nature Reserve, the Shannon National Park, the Wellington National Park, the Kalbarri National Park, and the François Peron National Park, Karakamia Wildlife Sanctuary, and Paruna Wildlife Sanctuary. Resettlement programs have been running in South Australia since 1979, including the first on Bird Club Island near Port Augusta . Six brush-tailed rat kangaroos were brought to the island, but all of the animals died within 17 months from the pursuit of introduced predators. Ten animals that were released into the wild at Baird Bay Island Conservation Park in 1982 died as a result of being stalked by red foxes. Between 1981 and 1987, a total of 128 brush-tailed rat kangaroos were introduced to the Saint Francis Conservation Park. The program initially seemed to be successful, but after a year all animals died.

Possible reasons could have been excessive competition from nosebags or looting by diamond pythons . The first successful resettlement in South Australia began in 1983 on Wedge Island . From 36 specimens that were initially brought to the island, the population increased to five to six thousand by the year 2000. In the 1990s, brush-tailed rat kangaroos began to be reintroduced to fenced nature reserves on the mainland. In 1991, eighty animals were resettled in the Yookamurra Sanctuary, where the population increased to about two hundred by the year 2000.

In 1994, 67 brush-tailed rat kangaroos from Western Australia were released into the Venus Bay Conservation Park. This sanctuary is located on the Eyre Peninsula between the towns of Streaky Bay and Elliston and covers an area of ​​1,460 hectares. The park is known for reintroduction programs of four species, including the brush- tailed rat kangaroo, the long-tailed triel , the big bunny rat , and the big rabbit- nosed whip . In 2000 there were an estimated five hundred brush-tailed rat kangaroos in Venus Bay Conservation Park. In 1999 45 animals from this park were relocated to the Lincoln National Park in South Australia to build a new population. All animals survived the first year. 28 animals were brought from Wedge Island to Flinders Ranges National Park, of which about 15 survived the first year. In New South Wales, reintroduction programs have taken place at Yathong Nature Reserve, Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary, and Genaren Hills Sanctuary. The first group of brush-tailed rat kangaroos were released to the wild at Genaren Hills Sanctuary in 1998, and the second in 1999.

Thanks to a large-scale fox clearance, populations recovered so well that the brush-tailed rat kangaroo was removed from Australia's state and Commonwealth lists of endangered species in 1996. By this time the population had grown to around 250,000 individuals. However, from 2001 onwards the population rate declined by 25 to 95 percent per year on the mainland and by 90 percent between 2005 and 2007. The island populations apparently remained stable. It is estimated that between 2001 and 2006 the stocks fell by a total of 70 to 80 percent to 8,000 to 15,000 copies. The declines continue and there are no clear signs of population recovery. The reasons for this remain a mystery. Presumably, the chasing after cats or the impairment caused by infections could have played a role. In 2008 the brush-tailed rat kangaroo was classified by the IUCN in the " critically endangered " category .

literature

  • Peter Menkhorst: A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia. Illustrated by Frank Knight. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne et al. 2001, ISBN 0-19-550870-X , p. 106.
  • Ronald Strahan & Steve van Dyck (Eds.): The Mammals of Australia. 3rd Revised edition. New Holland Publishers, 2008, ISBN 978-1877069253 , pp. 291-292.
  • Andrew Burbidge, John Woinarski, Peter Harrison: The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 CSIRO Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-064-310-873-8 , pp. 304-310
  • Mark Eldridge & Greta Frankham: Family Potoroidae (Potoroos and Bettongs). In: Don E. Wilson & Russell A. Mittermeier (Eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Monotremes and Marsupials: Volume 5. Lynx Edicions Barcelona, ​​2015. ISBN 978-84-96553-99-6 : S. 626-627
  • Fred Ford: John Gould's Extinct and Endangered Mammals of Australia . National Library of Australia, 2014. ISBN 978-0642278616

Web links

Commons : Brush-tailed Rat Kangaroo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Aboriginal Words in the English Language: LZ . One big garden. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  2. ↑ Collett. R. (1887). On a collection of mammals from central and northern Queensland. Zoological Yearbooks 2. 829–940
  3. ^ HH Finlayson (1931): On mammals from the Dawson Valley. Queensland. Part I. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 55. 67-89.
  4. ^ NA Wakefield (1967): Some taxonomic revision in the Australian Marsupial genus Bettongia (Macropodidae) with description of a new species. Victorian Naturalist 84. 8-22.
  5. ^ A b John Gould: The Mammals of Australia , Volume 2, 1863. P. 72
  6. ↑ CW Brazenor (. In suffering), 3 March 1937 cited in Francis Harper : Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World. 1945, p. 82
  7. ↑ AS LeSeouf (. In suffering), February 15, 1937 quoted in Francis Harper: Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World. 1945, p. 82
  8. ^ ELG Troughton (in litt.), April 16, 1937, quoted in Francis Harper: Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World. 1945, p. 82
  9. ↑ HH Finlayson (1958): On central Australian mammals (with notice of related species from adjacent tracts). Part III. The Potoroinae. Records of the South Australian Museum 13: 235-302.
  10. ^ F. Wood Jones: The Mammals of South Australia. Volume 2. Adelaide, South Australia: Government Printer, 1924. pp. 214-215
  11. ^ Francis Harper: Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World. New York, 1945, p. 77
  12. ↑ David Day: The Doomsday Book of Animals. Viking, New York 1981, ISBN 0-670-27987-0 . Pp. 229-230
  13. ^ John CZ Woinarski, Andrew A. Burbidge & Peter L. Harrison: Ongoing unraveling of a continental fauna: Decline and extinction of Australian mammals since European settlement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015, Vol. 112, No. 15, pp. 4531-4540.
  14. ↑ Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. Volume 1. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 . P. 101
  15. ^ GC Shortridge: An account of the geographical distribution of the marsupials and monotremes of South-West Australia, having special reference to the specimens collected during the Balston Expedition of 1904-1907. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1910, pp. 803-848