Honey bagger
| Honey bagger | ||||||||||||
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Honey bucket ( Tarsipes rostratus ), after John Gould 1863 |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Tarsipedidae | ||||||||||||
| Gervais & Verreaux , 1842 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Tarsipes | ||||||||||||
| Gervais & Verreaux , 1842 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Tarsipes rostratus | ||||||||||||
| Gervais & Verreaux , 1842 |
The honey bucket or proboscis ( Tarsipes rostratus ) is a species of marsupial and lives in southwest Australia . It is the only member of the Tarsipedidae family. The mouse-sized, brown-gray honeycomb has specialized in nectar and pollen food and plays an important role as a flower pollinator.
anatomy
The males reach overall lengths of 13.5 to 18 centimeters, of which 7 to 10 centimeters are on the tail. The larger females reach overall lengths of 14.5 to 19.5 centimeters (tail length 7.5 to 10.5 centimeters). Males weigh 7 to 11 grams, females 8 to 16 grams.
The fur of the honeybuck is gray-brown on the back and reddish on the flanks and shoulders. Three longitudinal lines on the back are characteristic. The eel line is dark brown and extends from the back of the head to the base of the tail, the two shorter lateral stripes are light brown. The belly is beige. The eyes and ears are large, and the snout is long and pointed , similar to that of shrews . The body-length prehensile tail is almost hairless.
The honeysuckle's teeth are heavily modified due to the specialized diet. It has a total of 22 teeth. The tooth formula is I 2/1 C 1/0 P 1/0 M 3/3. The two incisors of the lower jaw are the only well-formed teeth, while the remaining twenty teeth are reduced to tiny cones.
The first toe of the hind foot of the five toes of the honey bucket can be opposed to enable safe climbing. The feet have rough pads, the toes only small claws on the second and third toes of the hind foot and nails on the other toes.
distribution and habitat
Honeysuckle have a very limited range and live exclusively in the coastal southwest of Australia - the area extends from Geraldton to the southeast to Esperance . There they predominantly inhabit open and semi-open heather and bush landscapes as well as open forests.
Way of life
General
The predominantly nocturnal honeybuckers see and hear very well. The search for food takes place visually and with the help of the sense of smell. The activity peaks are in the morning between 6 and 8 a.m., in the evening between 5 and 7 p.m. and at night between 11:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., with the nocturnal activity phase being used primarily to search for food. Outside these times, honeybuckers show less activity or sleep. Honeybuckers are very skilled climbers, they mainly live in the shrub and bush vegetation near the ground. The long tail is used as a "fifth hand" and for balancing. They build nests ("Kobel") or use abandoned bird nests for rest periods.
Honeybuckers are loyal loners and claim territories of around 1280 square meters (males) and 700 square meters (females). Females are the dominant sex and occupy the most nutritious areas together with young animals. The districts mostly overlap each other. The intra-species communication takes place via squeaking tones and odor-intensive glandular secretions.
Behavior in cold weather
Since honey baggers have a high metabolic rate and body temperature, the animals fall into torpor when it is cold and lack of food and can withstand this state for up to ten hours at a body temperature of 5 ° C. The temperature can rise spontaneously from the torpor. The young animals also often move closer together in the bag to save energy.
nutrition
Honeysuckle specialize in nectar and pollen as food and lick them up with a long, rough, brush-like tongue that can be stuck out up to 2.5 centimeters. The licked food is stripped on the palate and swallowed. Pollen and nectar are digested and excreted within six hours. Nectar is primarily a source of energy and water and, by and large, a twenty percent sugar solution. Only through specialized kidneys is it possible for honeybuckers to excrete the excess water; the loss of fluids per day can amount to more than the body weight. The Banksia and Dryandra inflorescences with 250 to 2500 individual flowers are preferred , especially those that grow inconspicuously colored near the ground. By using various climbing techniques, honey baggers often reach even remote flowers. Sometimes they hang upside down on a branch to get a source of food. The ingestion of insects was observed less often , but trapped animals caught flies with great skill from the air.
Reproduction and development
At the age of four to six months, honeybuckers become sexually mature. Mating takes place without mating prelude and only if the larger female allows it. Studies of the DNA showed that several males were involved in one litter. Apparently there is competition for sperm , because honeysuckle also have large testicles , which make up 4.2% of the body weight, and with 0.36 millimeters the longest sperm of all mammals. Mating can take place at any time of the year, but mostly females with young in the pouch are found in early autumn, winter and spring. A female has at least two litters a year.
After a gestation period of 21 to 28 days, two to four young animals are born, which are the lightest newborn mammals at all, weighing around 5 milligrams . The young animals are provided with four teats in the bag, on which they are suckled for sixty days. During this time they remain in the bag. The small litter size and slow development time despite the short life expectancy show that it is difficult for the dams to get enough pollen for themselves and for milk production. After 60 days the young animals have reached a weight of 2.5 grams and leave the bag. They then follow the mother in the search for food, occasionally supplement their food spectrum with milk and ride on the back of the mother animal. This bond ends after two weeks. Honeysuckle have a life expectancy of one year, rarely two. Honeybuckers can delay the birth of their young at times that are more favorable for rearing ( dormancy ).
Ecological importance
Honeysuckle are the main pollinators of the Proteaceae , particularly of the Banksia genus . These plants have very stable inflorescences adapted to pollination by mammals, a high abundance of nectar and pollen and have a very intense smell. Pollination is carried out by pollen, which sticks in the fur of the honey bag and is carried from flower to flower. The honeysuckle are therefore an integral part of the flowery heaths in southwest Australia.
Systematics and tribal history
The honey bucket is the only member of the Tarsipedidae family. The species was separated from the climbing baglers, to which it was previously counted, because of special features of the body structure . On the basis of DNA hybridization and morphological analyzes, a sister group relationship to the dwarf glide pouches is now assumed. The honey bag split off from other bag mammals very early. The oldest fossil remains of him and close relatives come from the Pleistocene and are only about 35,000 years old; It is assumed that the split began around 20 million years ago in the Miocene .
The generic name Tarsipes is derived from Tarsius , the name of the Koboldmakis , and the word pes (= foot). The name literally means "Koboldmakifoot" and refers to the similarity of the feet with those of the Koboldmakis. There are two synonyms : Tarsipes rostratus and Tarsipes spenserae . Both names were given in 1842, which is why there was long controversy as to which is the older and therefore the one that is valid according to the ICZN priority rules. According to a work by JA Mahoney, Tarsipes rostratus is the valid name.
Honey baggers and people
Within their area of distribution, honeybuckers are sometimes common, but human impacts make the already small habitats smaller and smaller. Although clearing is now prohibited by law, the heaths continue to shrink. Furthermore, naturalized foxes and especially cats are a strong threat to honeybuckers.
swell
literature
- Ron D. Wooller and Eleanor M. Russell: Honigbeutler in: David MacDonald (ed.): The large encyclopedia of mammals , Könemann Verlag, Königswinter 2004, p. 858 f, ISBN 3-8331-1006-6 (German translation of the original edition from 2001)
- W. Violence: Der Honigbeutler in: Bernhard Grzimek (Ed.): Grzimeks Tierleben Säugetiere 1 , Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 2004, p. 112 f, ISBN 3-8289-1603-1 (unchanged reprint of the original edition from 1967)
- Honey Possum in: Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, London 1999. ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
Web links
- Honeybuckers on Animal Diversity Web
- Tarsipes rostratus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Australasian Marsupial & Monotreme Specialist Group, 1996. Retrieved on 12 May, 2006.
- Photo gallery
Individual evidence
- ↑ HM Vose: Feeding habits of the western Australian honey possum, Tarsipes spenserae . In: Journal of Mammalogy 1973, No. 54, pp. 245-247
- ↑ KP Aplin & M. Archer: Recent advances in marsupial systematics with a new syncretic classification . In: M. Archer: Possums and opossums . Sydney: Surrey Beatty & Sons, 1987. ISBN 0-949324-05-1
- ↑ JA Mahoney: The specific name of the honey possum (Maruspialia: Tarsipedidae: Tarsipes rostratus Gervais and Verreaux, 1842) . In: Australian Mammalogy 1981, No. 4, pp. 135-138
