Brush-tailed Phascogale
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| Phascogale tapaotafa (F. Meyer, 1793) |
The Brush-tailed Phascogale (Phascogale tapaotafa), also known as the Tuan, is a rat-sized, arboreal carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae, characterized by a tuft of black silky hairs on the terminal portion of its tail. It has a widespread but fragmented distribution throughout all states of Australia, excluding Tasmania. All males die before reaching one year of age, generally from stress related diseases brought about by the energy expended in a bout of frenzied mating. Females nest in hollow trees, bearing litters of 7 to 8 young which stay in the nest to the age of 5 months. As a result of habitat destruction and predation by the red fox and feral cat, they are believed to have disappeared from roughly half of their former range.
It is listed as a Vulnerable Species on Schedule 2 of the Threatened Species Conservation Act, 1995 (TSC Act, NSW). However the IUCN Red List lists it only as "near-threatened", and it does not have a EPBC Act status.
[edit] References
- ^ Groves, Colin (16 November 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 32. ISBN 0-801-88221-4.
- ^ Australasian Marsupial & Monotreme Specialist Group (1996). Phascogale tapoatafa. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 2007-01-30]].
[edit] External links
- Brush-tailed Phascogale, the National Parks and Wildlife Service of New South Wales, Australia.
- "Writing their names in ink", Brush-tailed phascogale survey, Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife.
- [1], Brush-tailed Phascogale information and image Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife.
