Quokka

True Wild Life | Quokka | The Quokka is a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. Like other marsupials in the macropod family , the Quokka is herbivorous and mainly nocturnal. It can be found on some smaller islands off the coast of Western Australia, in particular on Rottnest Island just off Perth and Bald Island near Albany. Quokkas resemble a small wallaby, with small rounded ears, and brown or greyish fur.

In the wild, its roaming is restricted to a very small range in the South-West of Western Australia, with a number of small scattered populations on the mainland, one large population on Rottnest Island and a smaller population on Bald Island near Albany. The islands are free of foxes and cats. On Rottnest, it is common and occupies a variety of habitats ranging from semi-arid scrub to cultivated gardens.

Quokka weighs 2.5 to 5 kg and is 40 to 90 cm long with a 25 to 30 cm tail  which is rather short for a macropod. It has a stocky build, rounded ears, and a short, broad head. Although looking rather like a very small, dumpy kangaroo, it can climb small trees and shrubs. Its coarse fur is a grizzled brown colour, fading to buff underneath.

Quokka feeds at night on native grasses and the leaves of shrubs. They need drinking water, but can survive long periods without it. This is helped by the remarkable ability of the Quokka to reuse a portion of their bodies waste products. These animals breed year round, and have a gestation period of 4 months before a new joey is born. The joey lives in its mother's pouch for the first 25 weeks of its life. After leaving the pouch, the joey continues to suckle at its mother's teets for a further 10 weeks.

There were once a lot of Quokkas, but they are now in danger of extinction. They are under threat from development that has destroyed the wetlands where they live and are also threatened by other animals that have been introduced by humans. Quokkas are preyed on by cats and foxes, who are non-native animals in Australia. Their wetland habitat is also disturbed by feral pigs. While efforts are being made to protect them, it is thought that the numbers of Quokka still have not recovered.

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Huon Tree Kangaroo

 

True Wild Life | Huon Tree Kangaroo | Huon Tree Kangaroo (Dendrolagus matschiei), also known as the Matschie's Tree Kangaroo is a tree kangaroo  native to the Huon Peninsula of North Eastern New Guinea. Under the IUCN classification, Huon Tree Kangaroo is endangered. With a body and head length of 20 to 32 inches, Huon Tree Kangaroo are much smaller than Australia's well-known red kangaroo. 

There is no particular season in which they breed. Gestation lasts 32 days and joeys of captive bred individuals leave the pouch after 13 ½ months. The average life span of the Huon Tree Kangaroo in the wild is unknown, but is at least 14 years. The life span of the kangaroo in a zoo is about 20 years. The Huon Tree Kangaroo can only be found on the Huon Peninsula on the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea. They live in forests that are usually foggy.Unlike other species of kangaroos, the Huon Tree Kangaroo spends most of its time living in trees. They even eat and sleep in trees.

The most distinctive trait of all tree kangaroos is the hair whorl they possess. It is a patch of hair that goes out in many directions and its location ranges from up near the shoulders all the way down to the tail. The Huon Tree Kangaroo is golden on its ventral side, lower parts of its limbs, ear edges, belly, and tail, and the rest of its body is a chestnut brown color, except for usually having a dark stripe down its back. Their faces are typically an array of yellow and white colors. The Huon Tree Kangaroos are similar in color and size to Dendrolagus dorianus, the Doria’s tree kangaroo. Huon Tree Kangaroos ears are small and bear-like looking and they do not have a good sense of hearing because of it. They have curved claws on their forelimbs and soft pads on their hind limbs that aid in their climbing ability, and they have some independent movement of their digits as well as good dexterity due to their forelimbs being able to bend a great deal.

The Huon Tree Kangaroo are mainly folivorous, eating anything from leaves, sap, insects, flowers, and nuts.  Since they eat high fiber foods, they only eat maybe about 1 to 2 hours throughout the day and the other time of the day they are resting and digesting their food. Their digestion is similar to that of the ruminants; they have a large, “tubiform forestomach”, where most of the fermentation and breakdown of tough material takes place at; in the hind stomach, there is a mucosa lining with many glands that help absorption begin here.

The Huon Tree Kangaroo lives only on the Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea. Usually we think of kangaroos as animals that hop around grasslands. However, Huon Tree Kangaroos are an exception. They live in forests and are more adept at climbing trees than they are at moving on land. Today, as the population on the Huon Peninsula grows, more and more of the kangaroo's precious forests are being converted into farmland. Continued habitat loss is pushing the Huon Tree Kangaroo toward the brink of extinction.

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Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo

 

True Wild Life | Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo | Goodfellow's Tree-kangaroo also called the Ornate Tree Kangaroo, belongs to the family Macropodidae, which includes kangaroos, wallabies and their relatives. The species is native to the rainforests  of New Guinea, and the border of central Irian Jaya in Indonesia.  Under the IUCN classification, the species is listed as Endangered, which is a result of overhunting and human encroachment on their habitat.

Like other tree-kangaroos, Goodfellow's Tree-kangaroo is quite different in appearance from terrestrial kangaroos. Unlike its land dwelling cousins, its legs are not disproportionately large compared to its forelimbs which are strong and end in hooked claws for grasping tree limbs, and it has a long tail for balance. All of these features help it with a predominantly arboreal existence. Goodfellow's Tree-kangaroo has short, woolly fur, usually chestnut to red-brown in color, a gray-brown face, yellow-colored cheeks and feet; a pale belly, a long, golden brown tail, and two golden stripes on its backside.  It weighs approximately 7 kg. 

Although it feeds mainly on the leaves of the Silkwood tree, other morsels are accepted when available, including various fruits, cereals, flowers and grasses.  It has a large stomach that functions as a fermentation vat, similar to the stomachs of cows and other ruminant  herbivores, where bacteria break down fibrous leaves and grasses.

Unlike other kangaroos, Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroos like to stay in the treetops rather than hopping around on the ground. They choose to live in the treetops to protect themselves from enemies on the ground. The New Guinea Island used to be rich in nature but as it became the major exporter of lumbers and minerals, the forests were destroyed by the human. The more and more safe places to live for Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroos are now disappearing.

To make the matters worse, roads have been extended to the middle of a forest. It has made Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroos an easy prey for hunters who go after their meat. They are usually active in the morning and evening but those who live in the area where there are many people have become nocturnal. Once they chose to live in the treetops to protect themselves from the enemies; maybe now they have changed their lifestyle for fear of human, their new enemies.

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Kowari

True Wild Life | Kowari | also known as the Brush-tailed Marsupial Rat, Kayer Rat, Byrne's Crest-tailed Marsupial Rat, Bushy-tailed Marsupial Rat and Kawiri, is a small carnivorous marsupial native to the dry grasslands and deserts of central Australia. It is monotypical of its genus.  The Kowari is a ground dwelling carnivorous marsupial, living either in its own dug burrow or in the hole of another mammal. The Kowari is a solitary animal and marks its territory with secreations from a scent gland and leaving scats and urine at certain places throught their home teritory When approached, Kowari are very aggressive with much hisssing and chattering and thrashing of its tail.

Sexual maturity in a Kowari is reached in the first year of life but breeding seldom takes place until the second year between May and December. The female Kowari (who may produce 2 litters per season) carries up to six young on her teats for about eight weeks and suckles them in a nest (of soft materials) for a further eight weeks. Young Kowaris may ride on their mothers side or back (2-3 months old). The young become independant 100 days after birth.

The Kowari is well adapted to life in the central desert and does not need to drink, as it derieves needed moisture from its food. When cold and food supply is scarce, the Kowari may become torpid (a form of hibernation). By day, it sleeps in a burrow (sometimes can be seen "Sunbaking"), and at night it is a fierce predator on insects, the larger arthropods, and small vertebrates (eg birds, rodents, lizards) The Kowari can stalk like a cat and uses a direct neck bite when killing large prey.

Its range seems to have contracted considerably in recent decades but it is not clear whether this is an indication of its impending endangerment or of cyclical changes in the density of an opportunistic species, self regulating its numbers to survive in a harsh enviroment. So at this stage its Status is listed as Vulnerable Distribution: 100,000-300,000 square kilometres

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Wombat

True Wild Life | Wombat | The wombat is a medium sized marsupial that is found only in Australia and it's surrounding islands. Wombats are burrowing mammals that spend most of the day under ground, coming out at night to feed. The common wombat is thought to be a descendant of the giant wombat that existed around 50 million years ago. The giant wombat's extinction is said to be caused by hunting and changes to their environment including pollution and habitat loss.

The common wombat is a nocturnal herbivore and gets to about 26 years old in the wild although some wombat individuals have been known to live for longer in captivity. Wombats eats grasses, shoots and bark which the wombat needs to keep gnawing on in order to keep it's continuously growing teeth at a manageable size. Like all other marsupials, the female wombat has a warm pouch on it's belly in which the wombat babies are nurtured for the first few months of life. When the baby wombats are first born they are very small and undeveloped and crawl into the mother wombat's pouch almost immediately. The baby wombat stays in the pouch of the mother wombat until the baby wombat is around 5 months old. By the time the baby wombat is roughly 7 months old, it is able to care for itself.

Wombats have long claws which they use to dig burrows. Wombat burrows can easily become an extensive network of underground tunnels leading to small chambers. Most wombats are solitary animals but some wombats have been known to form underground colonies with other wombats.

Wombats have a few natural predators including foxes and dingos. Although the wombat is relatively defenceless when it is out and about, wombats are generally well protected in their underground burrows as many predators cannot follow the wombat into the narrow, complex tunnels. Today the wombat is considered to be an endangered species of animal. Wombat numbers have been decreasing rapidly due to habitat loss and hunting by humans who believe the wombat and it's network of underground tunnels to be an agricultural pest.

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Wallaby

True Wild Life | Wallaby | The wallaby is a small to medium sized marsupial found on the Australian continent and its surrounding islands. Today there are a number of wild wallaby populations inhabiting other areas around the world where the wallaby has been introduced by humans. The wallaby is most closely related to Australia's largest marsupial, the kangaroo. The wallaby is generally smaller than a kangaroo although some wallaby individuals have been known to reach 6ft tall.

There are roughly 30 different species of wallaby found in a variety of habitats throughout the Australian continent. The habitats of wallaby are so diverse that wallaby species are often named after their habitat. This includes the rock wallaby, the brush wallaby and the shrub wallaby. Other wallaby species such as the hare wallaby, are named after their size and appearance.

The wallaby has strong and powerful back legs which the wallaby hops on in order to move about. The forearms of the wallaby are much smaller as they are mainly used for feeding and occasionally to help with balance. The tail of the wallaby is often as long as the wallaby's body and plays a critical role as a balance aid and is often used in self-defence.animal that forages on the ground for seeds and fallen fruits. Grasses make up the bulk of the wallaby's diet along with leaves from low trees and shrubs and berries. The wallaby is a very sociable animal and can often be seen foraging for food with other wallaby individuals.

Due to its relatively large size, the wallaby has few natural predators within its environment. Canines such as dingos and foxes are the main predators of the wallaby along with large reptiles such as crocodiles and snakes. The wallaby is able to defend itself against predators by hitting them with its long, powerful tail. The wallaby is a marsupial meaning that the female wallaby has a pouch on her tummy in which to raise her young. The female wallaby gives birth to a single baby wallaby (occasionally twins), known as a joey, after a gestation period of only a month. The joey then crawls up into its mother's pouch, where it is cared for and nurtured until it is fully developed.

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Tasmanian Devil

True Wild Life | Tasmanian Devil | The Tasmanian devil is a carnivorous marsupial and the Tasmanian devil is therefore distantly related to kangaroos and wombats. Although the Tasmanian devil's closest relative is a kangaroo, the Tasmanian devil has the appearance of a wild dog The Tasmanian devil is only found on the Australian island state of Tasmania. The Tasmanian devil is characterized by their black fur and the offensive odour the Tasmanian devil secretes when stressed. The Tasmanian devil is also known to making a horrible, loud screeching sound when the Tasmanian devil is distressed or feels threatened.

Since the late 1990s, a nasty facial mutation disease has caused the Tasmanian devil population to decline, meaning that the Tasmanian devil is now an endangered species. The facial mutation disease is thought to be a type of cancer and ends in fatality about a year after it is contracted. The Tasmanian devil is very fierce, but that does not mean we shouldn't try to save them. If people shoot them because they attack something, that is like killing a friend, there will soon be no more.

The Tasmanian devil known to display odd and slightly psychotic behaviour. When the Tasmanian devil feels threatened by a predator, is competing for mate or even a male, the Tasmanian devil displays a series of behaviours including lunging, teeth-baring and growling. The Tasmanian devil turns to rage so quickly that European settlers first named it the devil. Tasmanian devils are highly carnivorous and survive on snakes, birds, fish, insects and road kill. When a carcass is found, Tasmanian devils are known to be one of the loudest animals when it comes to fighting for a meal.

Tasmanian devils are solitary animals and are nocturnal. The Tasmanian devil rests in burrows, caves and hollow logs during the day and then come out at night to find food. Tasmanian devils use their long whiskers and fantastic sense of smell to find prey whilst avoiding troublesome predators. Female Tasmanian devils give birth after about three weeks of pregnancy to 20 or 30 very tiny young. These tiny Tasmanian devil babies crawl up their mother's fur and into her pouch where they are kept safe as well as fed. However, only a few of the Tasmanian devil babies will survive as the mother cannot feed them all at once. The baby Tasmanian devils leave the safety of their mother's pouch when they are about 4 months old and are big enough and strong enough to make it on their own when they are 8 months old.

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Possum

True Wild Life | Possum | The possum is a medium-sized marsupial that is natively found in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Sulawesi, which is a tropical island found in the Indonesian Archipelago. Today the possum has also been introduced to New Zealand and parts of China. There are 69 different species of possum found in the far east, all of which range of size and colour. The pygmy possum is the smallest species of possum in the world, growing to just 10cm tall, where the brushtail possum can reach more than a meter in height.

In general, the possum is roughly the same size and weight of a domestic cat. The possum is not to be confused with the opossum, which is found in North America and is the only marsupial which inhabits areas outside of Australia and it's surrounding islands. Possums tend to be found inhabiting bush-lands and rainforests where the possums live in hollow trees and logs. The possum lives a predominantly arboreal lifestyle meaning that the possum spends most of it's time in the trees.

Possums are nocturnal animals and therefore, the possum only hunts for food in the cover of the night. The possum spends the lighter daytimes, resting in hollow trees out of site from predators. Possums have long prehensile tails, which are naked on the underside which gives the possum more grip when it is in the trees. Possums also have sharp claws which enable them to climb up tree trunks more easily.

Possums are omnivorous animals so possums naturally eat a variety of both plants and other animals. Possums feed on almost anything they can find including insects, leaves, flowers, nectar, fruits and even small mammals, birds and reptiles. The possum has a number of predators in the wild, which vary depending on the region which the possum inhabits. Foxes, cats and birds of prey are the main predators of the possum but other animals such as Tasmanian devils, dogs, dingos and snakes also prey on the possum.

The possum is a very solitary animal, and possum individuals only really come together to mate. The possum is thought to breed throughout the year rather than having a strict breeding season. The female possum gives birth to between 2 and 4 baby possums after a gestation period of just a couple of weeks. As with all marsupials, the female possum has a pouch on her tummy which the new born possum babies crawl into and stay until they are bigger, less vulnerable and able to start feeding themselves. Typically only one of the possum babies will survive and emerge from the pouch after 6 or 7 months.

In some areas, the possum is seen to be a pest as they are known to hunt in urban waste and compost bins in search of food. Possums are generally considered to not be threatened with extinction, although some of the rarer species of possum, such as the cuscus, are threatened animals or even considered to be endangered.

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Pademelon

 

True Wild Life | Pademelon | The pademelon is a small to medium sized marsupial found inhabiting the forests of Australia and a number of it's surrounding islands.The pademelon is most closely related to the wallaby and the kangaroo. There are seven different species of pademelon found in the jungles of the far east, the population numbers of all seven pademelon species are declining primarily due to hunting and habitat loss.

The pademelon is a solitary and nocturnal animal meaning that the pademelon, spends the light daytime hours resting, and goes foraging for food during the cooler cover of night. The pademelon is most commonly found inhabiting coastal regions of Australia, Papua New Guinea and Tasmania. The pademelon spends much of it's waking time, foraging for leaves, grasses, shoots, berries and herbs in it's dense jungle environment. Pademelons also commonly venture into shrublands where they have less cover to feast on the lush plants, if there are no predators around.

In many areas of forest inhabited by the pademelon, there are often no real predators around but habitat loss in the form of deforestation has caused the pademelon population numbers to decline. In other areas, pademelon are most commonly preyed upon by canines including foxes, dingos, domestic dogs and even the odd cat. Those pademelon inhabiting the Tasmanian forests often have more of a variety of predators and are preyed upon by Tasmanian Devils, large snakes, large birds of prey such as eagles, and even by quolls.

The pademelon is a marsupial meaning that the female pademelon has a pouch on her belly where she nurses her young. After mating the infant pademelon will be born just 30 days later, when it has to make its own way into it's mother's pouch. Baby pademelon then spend the next 6 months or so growing growing and developing inside the pouch and eventually begin to venture out into the outside world.

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Opossum

 

True Wild Life | Opossum | The opossum is a medium-sized animal that is found inhabiting farmland and forested areas of North America. The opossum is thought to have evolved from the basic marsupials that lived in the jungles of South America. The opossum is often referred to as a opossum, although there is no direct link between the possums of Australia and the opossum of America. The opossum is the only species of marsupial that is found outside of Australia an it's surrounding islands.

The opossum is found inhabiting areas of grassland, farmland and woodland in North America. The opossum is also found in urban areas where the opossum can be a pest as it feeds on rubbish, and food that it finds lying around. The opossum is generally found in areas that are close to water. The opossum is known to be one of the world's animals that carries rabies and the opossum is much more likely to have the disease than any other animal. Opossums are also thought to have some immunity towards the venom of certain snakes such as pit vipers and rattlesnakes.

The opossum is an omnivorous animal and will eat almost anything that it can find. Opossums mainly feed on insects, frogs, birds, snakes, small mammals, and earthworms. The opossum is also a great scavenger and will feed on left over kills of other animals along with road-kill. The opossum has a number of natural predators in it's environment although the main predators of the opossum are birds of prey such as owls and eagles, dogs, foxes and cats. Humans are one of the main predators of the opossum as they hunt them for meat but the opossum is also commonly killed on the roads by cars.

As with all marsupials, the female opossum has a pouch in which it rears it's young. The opossum gives birth to as many as 15 babies, which are born in just a couple of weeks. After birth, the opossum babies, crawl up into their mother's pouch where they continue to grow and develop until they are a couple of months old. The opossum is an animal that is not threatened with extinction although due to deforestation and habitat loss, opossums are becoming increasingly common in urban and suburban areas.

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Numbat

True Wild Life | Numbat | The numbat is a small-sized marsupial that is found in Western Australia. The numbat has long, colourful fur and despite being a marsupial, the female numbat does not have a pouch on her belly.The numbat was once found across Southern Australia, but today the numbat is considered to be an endangered species as there are only a few small numbat colonies found in Western Australia today. It has been estimated that there are only 1,500 numbat individuals left in the wild.

Numbats inhabit forests and woodland, particularly those that are mainly made up of eucalyptus trees. Numbats have also been found in grasslands that are relatively close to water. Numbats are solitary animals with large home ranges, which they spend the daylight hours hunting for termites and in the dark nights in hollow logs and burrows. Numbats have strong front claws and long tongues which they use to get termites out of their nests.

The numbat is an omnivorous animal but it's diet primarily consists of termites and occasionally ants and other small insects. An adult numbat can eat more than 20,000 termites in just one day. Due to their small size, numbats are prey to a number of larger, predatory animals such as foxes, snakes, dingos and feral cats. Dogs also prey on numbats, along with birds of prey that prey on the smaller numbat babies.

The numbat breeding season is between January and May, when the female numbat gives birth to an average of 4 numbat babies after a gestation period of just a couple of weeks. The numbat babies quickly attach to the mother numbat's teat, where they are protected only by her long hair, as she does not have a pouch. Numbat babies are not left by their mother until they are a few months old, when she leaves to search for food. The mother numbat leaves her young in a burrow and comes back to give them milk every now and again.

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Koala

True Wild Life | Koala | The koala is a small bear-like mammal native to the forests of Australia. The koala does not exist in western Australia but can instead be commonly found on the east coast of Australia. Despite the bear-like appearance of the koala, the koala is not a species of bear but is a marsupial as the koala has a pouch on its tummy in which the baby koalas are carried in. The koala is a seemingly fairly docile creature, with the koala spending its time sleeping in the tops of eucalyptus trees. The koala eats the leaves of the eucalyptus tree which accounts for the majority of the diet of the koala.

The koala in southern Australia was very nearly wiped out by Victorian settlers in the 1800s. Koala conservation work is underway, as the koala numbers slowly repopulate the southern population of the koala. There are believed to be three different subspecies of the koala, although these koala subspecies differ very little from one another. The main noted difference between koala subspecies is the today less common southern koala tends to be slightly larger than the other koalas further north. This southern subspecies of koala is also found in a variation of colours from the typical grey to dark brown. The other koala subspecies are generally grey in colour with the odd white tuft of fur. The koala has a thick coat of fur, large ears and long limbs all which aid in the survival of the koala in its natural habitat. The koala also has sharp, curved claws which help the koala to climb trees and hang onto branches more effectively.

Female koalas are able to start giving birth to baby koalas when the female koala is between two and three years old. Healthy female koalas will then tend to have one baby koala every year for more than 10 years. Baby koalas are weaned from birth by the mother koala on both the milk of the mother koala and eucalyptus leaves and until the baby koala is about 12 months old. Female baby koalas will tend to leave their mother at this stage and will move to surrounding forest in order to begin starting their own family. Male baby koalas will generally stay with their mother until they are around 2 or 3 years old, and the male will then leave the home of the mother koala in order to find a mate.

When a baby koala is first born, the baby koala spends the first 6 months of its life hidden in the pouch on the front of the mother koala. During this time, the baby koala will eat nothing but the milk produced by the mother koala and the baby koala will also grow its fur, ears and eyes. The baby koala will then be ready to begin exploring the world outside the warm pouch of the mother koala.

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