Giant pouch marten
| Giant pouch marten | ||||||||||||
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Giant sacred marten ( Dasyurus maculatus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dasyurus maculatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Kerr , 1792) |
The Giant Pouch Marten or Spotted Marten ( Dasyurus maculatus ) is a species of the predatory marten family , which occurs in two subspecies in eastern Australia. The nominate form D. m. maculatus is distributed from Bundaberg in Queensland to Victoria and Tasmania . To the west the distribution area extends to Chinchilla . The smaller D. m. gracilis is restricted to a small area in northern Queensland on the Cape York Peninsula .
features
The males of the nominate form reach a head-trunk length of 38 to 76 cm, have a 37 to 55 cm long tail and reach a weight of 1.5 to 5 kg. Females stay significantly smaller with head and torso lengths of 35 to 45 cm, a tail length of 34 to 42 cm and a weight of 0.9 to 2.5 kg. D. m. maculatus is the largest form of the bag marten and the second largest predator after the bag devil . Male of D. m. gracilis grow to a length of 33 to 51 cm, a 31 to 44 cm long tail and a weight of 0.85 to 2.5 kg. Females are also smaller and reach a head-trunk length of 28.5 to 41 cm, have a 28.5 to 41 cm long tail and reach a weight of 0.8 to 1.6 kg. The upper side is reddish brown or brown with white spots of different sizes, the underside is pale in color. The species differs from other species of the genus by the spotted tail.
Habitat and way of life
Within the distribution area, different habitats are used as living space, from tropical, subtropical and temperate rainforests to moist and dry hardwood forests to open heather and bush landscapes. Giant martens mainly move on the ground, but can also climb, but only do so up to heights of three meters. They use crevices, piles of old wood and caves in trees or tree stumps as shelter. The animals are active during the day, but more at night. You are loner. The territory used by females is between 180 and 1000 hectares. Females are territorial, but tolerate their own female offspring in their territory. Males are not territorial and the territories used by them are much larger than the territories of the females with 2000 to 5000 hectares. They usually overlap with the territories of different females and other males. Giant martens use latrines, in which they deposit their feces and urine. The latrines can also serve to delimit the territory. During the day, giant martens move over distances of 3 to 5 km, the largest measured distance covered in one night was 8 km.
nutrition
Adult giant pouch martens ate approximately 70% of medium-sized mammals weighing between 0.5 and 7 kg. In addition, insects and carrion are often eaten, but reptiles and birds rarely. The prey spectrum includes the wild rabbit , the brown hare , the giant gliding bag , the big long-nosed bag , the big short-nosed bag , the red-necked filander , the eastern ring-tailed bag , the fox kusu and the dog-kusu . Young giant pouch martens tend to eat small mammals, birds and invertebrates.
Reproduction
The sexual cycle of the female giant martens lasts 28 days. You are fertile over a period of 3 to 5 days. Most pairings take place between late May and early August. The females choose their partners and mate with several males during this period. Copulation can take up to 17 hours. After a gestation period of around 21 days, an average of five boys are born between June and August and they stick to the teats for around seven weeks. The females have six teats arranged in two rows in the bag. After the first seven weeks, the young are left in the shelter when the female goes looking for food. They start playing with each other around 13 weeks of age and become independent by 18 to 20 weeks of age. Females reach adult size at two years of age, while males take a year longer. The nominate form reaches an age of five years in the wild, members of the smaller, northern subspecies are usually not older than two years.
Taxonomy and systematics
The giant bag marten was scientifically described for the first time in 1792 by Robert Kerr in his work The Animal Kingdom , a partial translation of Carl von Linné's Systema Naturae under the name Viverra maculata . So at that time he assigned the species to the crawling cats . But as early as 1796, the French zoologist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire introduced the genus of the bag marten ( Dasyurus ) to which the giant bag marten belongs together with five other species. The bag marten are the sister group of the bag devil ( Sarcophilus harrisi ) within the predator family (Dasyuridae ). Some scientists believe that the northern subspecies D. m. gracilis should get the status of an independent species, as it differs sufficiently from the nominate form and the areas of distribution of both forms have no contact with each other, so that there is no hybridization. It was also demanded that the Tasmanian population should be recognized as an independent subspecies.
Danger
The IUCN estimates the population of the giant pouch marten as potentially endangered (Near Threatened). It is believed that there are around 14,000 adult individuals. The range is today highly fragmented due to human land use and the populations in the numerous protected areas are too small.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Andrew Baker: Family Dasyuridae (Carnivorous Marsupials). in Don E. Wilson & Russell A. Mittermeier : Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Monotremes and Marsupials: Volume 5. ISBN 978-84-96553-99-6 , p. 303 and 304.
- ↑ Dasyurus maculatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2018 Posted by: Burnett, S. & Dickman, C., 2015. Accessed April 7 2020th
