Mammals
Species Profile: Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Macropus giganteus
The Eastern Grey Kangaroo is the most well known of all our macropod species. It is proudly displayed on our coat of arms and is, next to the koala, the animal most international visitors want to see. The Eastern Grey Kangaroo is distributed through all the eastern states of Australia including Tasmania. They have a wide and almost continuous distribution from the inland plains to the coast where annual rainfall exceeds more than 250 millimetres. The Eastern Grey is predominantly a grazing animal restricted to grasses and forbs. Its favorite food is grass, and on this diet it has a lower nitrogen requirement and intake of dry matter in comparison to sheep of equivalent weight. They are well suited to our dry, arid continent and scientific studies have proven that in times when rain is adequate they do not compete with cattle or sheep for food.
During the day, Eastern Grey Kangaroos mainly rest in the shade or in the shelter of trees and shrubs before moving out to graze in late afternoon and early morning. The mobs usually have one alpha male with many females and their young. Bachelor males occupy the fringes of the mob and await their time to become the alpha male, practicing their fighting techniques between themselves or with their mother if still at foot.
Females usually give birth to one young, although twins have been recorded; the gestation period lasts for 36 days. When the young joey makes its amazing journey to the pouch it is only the size of a small jellybean. On reaching the pouch it attaches itself to one of the two teats in the pouch. This will then be the only teat that it uses until weaned. The female produces different types of milk at different stages of the joey’s dependent life. Eastern Grey joeys leave the pouch at 11 months old and are weaned at around 18 months old; they stay with their mothers until they are two years old. Female young will often stay with their mother’s mob.
Whilst the Eastern Grey Kangaroo is protected by law and in some areas there has been concern over its decline, permits are still issued each year for the slaughter of millions of these beautiful creatures. Australia must be the only country in the world that eats its national emblem.
You can help this great Australian icon by boycotting places that sell kangaroo products, lobbying the government to end the culling each year, protecting and preserving habitat and taking care on the roads.
Species Profile: Koala
Phascolarctos cinereus
The koala is probably the most popular and well loved Australian mammal, next to the kangaroo. Their sleepy demeanor and cute faces have made them renowned all over the world. The koala's popularity with us is thought to stem from the fact they are one of the few animals to have a face rather than a muzzle, and this is what makes them far more human like to look at and gives them greater appeal.
The koala is one of the largest arboreal mammals in the world, with mature animal weights varying between 4kg and 15kg. Victoria 's koalas are much larger and browner than Queensland koalas, which are smaller and grey. Designed like camouflage, their white rumps are unique to each koala and make them difficult to spot from below when they are high in the trees.
Koalas are mainly nocturnal, with some crepuscular behavior. They live on the east coast of Australia and are distributed from Victoria through to Queensland , which also includes some island populations, including Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia . Throughout their distribution, koalas are found in different types of habitats that range from cool temperate areas to tropical rainforests, open forest and woodlands.
Koalas feed mainly on eucalyptus, although some koalas in some areas will eat other species, including melaleuca and casuarina foliage. Koalas have a preference for the species that exist in their own area, with climate and soil quality playing a big part in selection. Leaf is also seasonal; some types are consumed in winter but not tolerated in summer. Eucalypt leaves have a high fibre and water content, with a very low amount of protein, which allows the koala to go for long periods without water or even to consume no water at all, depending on the habitat they live in and drought conditions. Koalas also consume large quantities of soil and can be often seen at the base of trees ingesting soil and small stones.
Breeding season is heralded by an increase in male vocalisation and an increase in scent-marking; both males and females will scent-mark using urine at the base of trees. Infants are born after a 35-day gestation period weighing 0.5g and are 19mm long. They will spend the next five months in the pouch, emerging for the first time at six months of age.
Only 65% to 73% of females breed each year in the wild, and infant mortality is high –especially in the first three months of pouch life. Females can only raise one young per year, and if a female loses her first infant she has a 70% chance of losing any future young.
Despite their large distribution range, koalas are threatened in all areas – especially in Queensland and New South Wales . Habitat loss through the clearing of large tracts of land and the development of housing and commercial estates threatens the existence of this beautiful Australian icon.
Some of the things you can do to help the koalas are to plant and preserve trees, especially old growth trees and forests, lobby the council and government against the clearing of large tracts of land and the loss of suitable habitat connection corridors (even someone's back yard can be important habitat for urban koalas), encourage your neighbours to keep their dogs confined at night and take care on the roads during dusk and dawn if you live or are passing through koala habitat. Little things help, and you too can contribute to the protection and conservation of this amazing Australian icon.
Species Profile: Red Kangaroo
Macropus rufus
The Red Kangaroo is our largest and one of the most spectacular of the macropod species. They have a wide distribution from the inland Eastern side of Australia through to the west and are truly characteristic of the red or arid zone of Australia. Often referred to as a 'Blue Flier' due to the blue/grey tinge to their heads and the overall colour of some females, they make a spectacular sight as they move across the land in mobs of one dominant or alpha male and many females and their young.
Whilst they live in and have adapted well to the arid areas of Australia, they do need to drink; drought plays a big part in the breeding regimen of this species and they have a unique way to take control of this often annual event. Red Kangaroos depend largely on green herbage for survival; in times of drought after three months in summer and five months in winter the females cease to breed. Lactating mothers also cease milk production and more than half the pouch young during these times die.
A Red Kangaroos pregnancy lasts for 33 days, after which the young joey weighing only two grams is born. It requires less maintenance to tolerate frequent pregnancies and lose the young than what it would be to carry that joey for all of its pouch life during difficult times when its survival would threaten that of the mother. These amazing animals also have another defense against drought; once the female has had a joey she ceases to go into oestrus again, although she will continue to suckle the joey she has. Then when the drought has ended and there is abundant food again she will once again become a breeding female within a few days of the drought's end. The Red Kangaroo is one of this country's most amazing species, and unfortunately it is also one of the species for which cull permits are issued each year across Australia. You can help protect them by not buying or supporting the sale of kangaroo meat and other products and by taking care on the roads in open country where kangaroos may cross out paths. If you see an injured kangaroo always stop and check the pouch as it may contain a joey, then contact the local authorities and with the appropriate care it can return to the wild.
Species Profile: Rufous Bettong
Aepyprymnus rufescens
The Rufous Bettong is the largest of the rat-kangaroo family. They have bristly, shaggy fur with a distinct rufous tinge and silver hairs immersed throughout, and a pale grey underbelly.
They are solitary animals, although you will often get one male accompanied by one to two females, as the males tend to be polygynous. The females, however, associate only with the one male and will at times even be defended by them. They are strongly nocturnal and usually emerge from their nests about forty minutes after sunset. They rest in woven nests that are built in a scrape in the ground beneath dense covering; nesting materials are gathered and carried back to the nest site in the end of the tail, which curls around the selected material.
They have immensely strong claws that they use to dig tubers and underground fungi out of the ground which they eat; they also consume different grasses, sedge stems, seeds and insect larvae. They breed all year round and raise two to three infants per year. The young are born after a twenty-two to twenty-four day gestation period. They leave the pouch for the first time at seven to eight weeks old and vacate it permanently at sixteen weeks.
The young Rufous Bettong will remain with its mother for another seven weeks, after which it becomes independent. Females are capable of breeding at eleven months of age, with males breeding at twelve to thirteen months of age.
Male Rufous Bettongs can be extremely aggressive towards each other. While the females are slightly more tolerant, they can be quite vocal, hissing and grunting when upset or cranky. They even throw themselves on their side and kick the one they are cranky with. They also bite HARD.
While the Rufous Bettong is locally common in grassy coastal areas along the Queensland and NSW coast, it is now rare in dry forests on inland slopes. Feral cats and foxes have badly depleted its numbers, along with habitat loss and domestic pets.
This little Australian is rarely if ever seen by most people. You can help by protecting and preserving habitat, reporting fox and feral cat sightings to the appropriate people and keeping your domestic animals inside between dusk and dawn.
Species Profile: Short-beaked Echidna
Tachyglossus aculeatus
The Echidna would have to be one of Australia's cutest animals. Their round little bodies, fat fingers and cute little faces make you want to give them a big squish... except for the spines, that is.
The Short-beaked Echidna is found across all of Australia including Tasmania. They are commonly called echidna but their proper name is the Short-beaked Echidna, which distinguishes them from the Long-beaked Echidna of New Guinea.
Their distribution occurs across the country and even covers the snowy areas of Australia, as they have no particular habitat needs other than diet. They have long spines with fur growing between the spines; in Tasmania the fur can become longer than the spines and completely cover them. Their diet consists of ants and termites of different species, which they extract from their mounds and burrows with their very long sticky tongue. The echidna has no teeth - instead they produce copious amounts of saliva with which they coat their tongue and grind up their food on a horny pad at the back of their tongue and on their palate. They are solitary animals that have overlapping home ranges on which they have no fixed nest sites. They are extremely strong animals that seek shelter under thick bushes, in hollow logs, or under piles of debris made by wombats and rabbits, and even sometimes take up residence in their burrows.
Their patterns of activity are varied; in hotter climates activity is restricted to nights while in cooler, more temperate regions the pattern depends on air temperature. They will be more active at dusk and dawn, and in winter even during the day.
In some regions, such as the snowy mountains, the Short-beaked Echidna has been known to hibernate. The male Echidna has a spur on the ankle of their hind leg similar to the platypus, but they lack a venom gland.
Echidnas mate between July and August, with a lone female being chased around by up to ten males. A soft-shelled egg is laid around two weeks later directly on to the belly of the female. The muscles then contract around the egg, and ten days later the infant hatches and sucks up milk from mammary glands on the female's belly. The females carry their young for varying amounts of time, depending on the region, before leaving it in the nesting burrow and returning spasmodically to feed. Weaning has been documented as occurring between 180 and 205 days, with the female fully weaning her offspring by bringing it to the entrance of the burrow, feeding it and then not returning again; being inquisitive little animals they seem to cope very well with this method.
As a defense mechanism, Short-beaked Echidnas curl themselves into a ball and even on their back can quickly disappear into the ground. Echidnas come to grief with dogs, cars and bulldozers or any digging equipment.
You can help this amazing spiny Australian by being aware on the roads, keeping your dog confined at night and in some areas during the day, and during earthmoving checking for burrows or infants and adults as the digging commences.
