Brush tail pouch mouse
| Brush tail pouch mouse | ||||||||||||
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Brush-tailed pouch mouse, drawing from 1896 |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dasycercus blythi | ||||||||||||
| ( Waite , 1904) |
The brush- tailed pouch mouse ( Dasycercus blythi ) is a marsupial in the predator family that occurs in central and western areas of Australia . The taxon was considered a junior synonym of the comb-tailed pouch mouse ( Dasycercus cristicauda ) for a long time . Based on molecular biological studies in the 1990s and early 2000s, the brush-tailed pouch mouse is recognized as a species .
features
Females are smaller than males with a head-torso length of 120 to 140 mm, a tail length of 60 to 90 mm and a weight of 45 to 80 g. Without a tail, these reach a length of 130 to 165 mm, the tail is 75 to 100 mm long and the weight is 60 to 130 g. As with the sister species , the thick, bushy tail is striking . However, the black hairs on the tip of the tail (about 1/3 of the tail) cannot be straightened to form a comb at the top. The body and head are covered with gray to sand-colored fur on the top, while white fur occurs on the underside. In general, the brush-tail pouch mouse is slightly smaller than the comb-tail pouch mouse.
distribution
Due to the recent division of the genus into two species, an exact definition of the range of the brush-tailed pouch mouse is not yet available. The animals stay in dry landscapes, which are dominated by prickly head grasses ( Triodia ). They continue to occur in sand dunes.
Way of life
The brush tail pouch mouse is mostly nocturnal and digs holes in the ground. In addition to various invertebrates, it also preyed on small lizards and mammals. The size of the territory varies between 1.4 and 14 hectares for both sexes, with an overlap of around 20 percent being common. The females give birth to up to six young between June and October. In general, the brush tail pouch mouse can reproduce twice in life and a few specimens three times. In some regions, almost all adult males die before the young are born and the population only increases visibly when the offspring leave the mother's pouch. In connection with sexual maturity, males migrate longer distances while females stay close to the mother. Individuals could live to be five years in captivity.
status
The introduction of grass-eating animals such as cattle, rabbits or camels probably has no effect on the population of the species as long as around 15 percent of the prickly head grasses remain. Some specimens fall prey to foxes or house cats. The IUCN lists the brush-tailed pouch mouse as Least Concern .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Dasycercus blythi in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2016 Posted by: Woolley, P., 2015. Accessed August 19, 2017th
- ^ A b Lee K Curtis: Queensland's Threatened Animals . Csiro Publishing, 2012, p. 334 (English, brush-tailed mulgara ).