Filander
| Filander | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Red-necked Filander ( Thylogale thetis ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Thylogale | ||||||||||||
| Gray , 1837 |
The filanders ( Thylogale ) are a genus of marsupials from the kangaroo family (Macropodidae). In English the animals are called pademelons . The genus includes seven species.
Filanders inhabit eastern Australia , the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands, and Tasmania . They inhabit both wet and dry forests and other areas with thick undergrowth.
features
Filanders differ from other species of kangaroo mainly by their short, thick, almost hairless tail. With a weight of two to twelve kilograms, they count to the smaller kangaroo species, their head body length is 29 to 67 centimeters, the tail measures 25 to 51 centimeters. As with most kangaroos, the rear legs are significantly larger and stronger than the front legs.
The fur is reddish-brown to gray-brown on the upper side, the underside is lighter. Sometimes there are light streaks on the hips or face.
Like all kangaroos, they have a multi-chambered stomach for better utilization of the difficult to digest plant food.
Way of life
Filanders are mostly nocturnal, during the day they sleep hidden in thick vegetation. At night they go in search of food. Their diet consists of grasses, leaves and buds. When feeding, they often stay on grassy areas close to the edge of the forest, and when threatened they quickly flee into the protective undergrowth. When eating, they often come together in groups, but the groups have no permanent social structures.
Due to their habitat, they mainly move forward on all fours. They very seldom practice fast, sweeping hopping only with their hind legs, as the giant kangaroos know, for example. To get ahead faster, they create tunnel-like trails.
Reproduction is similar to that of other kangaroo species: after a gestation period of around 30 days, the female usually gives birth to a young, they too are familiar with delayed birth . Young animals spend their first four to six months of life in the pouch and are weaned after a few more months. They are sexually mature at around a year or a little more.
threat
The natural enemies of the Filander include the pouch martens , birds of prey and, in Tasmania, the marsupial devil . Filander meat was a special delicacy among the Aborigines . However, the Australian species are now more threatened by the transformation of their habitat into pastures and by introduced mammals such as foxes . The three species there have become rare or have disappeared in some areas, but overall are not threatened.
The four New Guinea species suffer from continued hunting and other threats, two of the species there are considered "critically endangered" and two as "endangered" according to the IUCN .
The species
- The red-bellied filander ( Thylogale billardierii ) died out on mainland Australia in the 19th century, but is common in Tasmania.
- The red-necked filander ( Thylogale thetis ) lives in eastern Australia.
- The Rotbeinfilander ( Thylogale stigmatica ) occurs in southern New Guinea and eastern Australia.
- The southern New Guinea filander ( Thylogale brunii ) lives in southern New Guinea and offshore islands.
- The Northern New Guinea Filander ( Thylogale browni ) inhabits eastern New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago.
- The mountain filander ( Thylogale lanatus ) occurs on the Huon Peninsula in eastern New Guinea.
- The calaby filander ( Thylogale calabyi ) is native to mountainous regions in southeastern New Guinea.
However, the current taxonomy of the New Guinea Filanders does not reflect the actual relationships. By molecular biological data obtained from comparing the cell nucleus - DNA and the mitochondrial DNA , the New Guinea Filander into a western and an eastern clade, each composed of different populations of divided Thylogale browni , T. brunii and T. calabyi composed.
Thylogale genus cladogram :
| Thylogale |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
In addition to the filander species that still exist today, an extinct one has also been described. The remains of Thylogale christenseni were found on a mountain at an altitude of 3996 meters in the Indonesian part of New Guinea and are about 5500 years old.
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999. ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
- Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
supporting documents
- ^ A b Peggy Macqueen, Jennifer M. Seddon, Jeremy J. Austin, Steven Hamilton, Anne W. Goldizen: Phylogenetics of the pademelons (Macropodidae: Thylogale ) and historical biogeography of the Australo-Papuan region. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 57, Issue 3, December 2010, pp. 1134-1148, doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2010.08.010
- ↑ JH Hope (1981): A new species of Thylogale (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) from Mapala Rock Shelter, Jaya (Carstensz) Mountains, Irian Jaya (western New Guinea), Indonesia. Records of the Australian Museum, Volume 33, Issue 8, Pages 369-387 doi: 10.3853 / j.0067-1975.33.1981.273
