Thursday 30 August 2012 The Tasmanian Pademelon - The Runway Makers

The Tasmanian Pademelon (Thylogale billardierii) is one of Australia's completely unique animals. Their Latin name translates to Billardière's pouched-weasel. The Pademelon is a stocky mammal that has gray to dark brown fur. These kangaroo-like animals possess shorter legs and tails than their distant relatives the Wallaby and Kangaroo have. The males are twice as big as the females. Males typically weigh in at an impressive 8 kilograms, or 17.6 pounds, while the females only weigh around 4 kilograms, or 8.8 pounds. There have been cases of males found as heavy as 12 kilograms, or 26.4 pounds. Similarly, female Pademelons have grown to weigh as much as 10 kilograms, or 22 pounds. These larger sized Pademelons are not common.

The Pademelons only live in Tasmania today. It is widely believed that they used to dwell on the Australian mainland before Europeans arrived, bringing other predators with them. The animals' habitats are mostly rain forests, forest gullies, and coastal scrub areas. Nocturnal animals by nature, Pademelons require the presence of clearings nearby in order to graze by night. They also need denser undergrowth in order to sleep during the day. The best place to actually see the Tasmanian Pademelon is in the Mt. William National Park of Tasmania. Here, dry woodlands and coastal heath are both preserved in the north east of Tasmania. Tasmanian Pademelons' ranges can be extremely large, covering 170 hectares, or 420 acres. These amazing animals will frequently travel as much as 2 kilometers, or 1.25 miles, through the forest on any given night. Yet, when they reach the edge of a forest, the Pademelons do not often come out farther than 100 meters, or 109 yards, in order to graze for food in patches of grass.

The Tasmanian Pademelons are vegetarians. They only feed on plants that grow lower to the ground. Included in their diet are green shoots, grasses, seedlings, shrubs, and herbs. Clearings tend to be richer in these types of foods on which they thrive. As they eat forestry industry planted seedlings, the Pademelons have come into conflict with foresters.

In Tasmania, the Pademelons have few predators. They are hunted by Eagles, Tasmanian Devils, and spotted quolls though. There used to be an abundance of Pademelons on the Australian mainland. This all changed with the introduction of the foxes brought from Europe. As the foxes multiplied, there were simply too many predators after them on mainland Australia, and they became extinct on the mainland. Because no foxes live in Tasmania, the Tasmanian Pademelon proves to be quite common there.

A unique feature of these Pademelons is their one of a kind runways that they create. These cleared tracks that they make through low lying vegetation are easily spotted. These animals generally turn out to be territorial and loners by nature. Once in a while, they are seen feeding near one another, though this is uncommon. The animals prefer to be alone, except for of course the mothers and their babies who depend on them for care.

Picture of the tasmanian pademelon by PanBK, licensed under GFDL You can help spreading the word about this animal by liking it on facebook

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Monday 27 August 2012 The Loggerhead Sea Turtle; Male or Female?

The Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) has an enormous range. They live in all of the oceans of the world, Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Mediterranean, except for the most frigid. Loggerheads favor coastal habitats but can have been known to travel far out to sea as well. They spend all of their lives in saltwater or estuarine habitats, except for a short time when the females come to land to lay their eggs. One of the features that distinguish the Loggerhead turtle as unique is the fact that there are no gender differences until the Loggerhead reaches adulthood. Another interesting feature of the Loggerhead turtle is that the female Loggerheads will often travel thousands of miles in order to lay their eggs at the same beach at which they were hatched. They do this with the help of a substance they have in their brains, magnetite (an iron compound), which allows the Loggerhead turtles to feel the magnetic field of the earth.

The Loggerhead turtle is an omnivorous reptile with a life span of 47-67 years. They range in size from around 31 to 49 inches (around 78 centimeters to 124.5 centimeters) and weigh around 170 to 315 pounds (around 77 kilograms to 142 kilograms). They feed on sea cucumbers, barnacles, crabs, shrimps, horseshoe crabs, sea urchins, conchs, fishes, octopuses, sponges, whelks, star fish, sea anemones, floating egg clusters, insects, flying fish, squids and jellyfish. Although the young have many predators, as do the eggs, once a Loggerhead becomes an adult their size limits their chance of becoming prey except to larger marine life such as sharks, parrotfish, monk seals, moray eels and killer whales.

The population of Loggerheads has declined by over 50% which makes the Loggerhead turtle an endangered species. Declining populations are due to the development of coastlines and beach disturbances by people such as cleaning, artificial lighting (discourages nesting and makes it hard for hatchlings to find their way to the water), fishing, driving and pollution. They are also hunted for food by some cultures as well as for their shells. High speed boat propellers are another killer as is the swallowing of trash such as fishing lines and plastic bags. Another cause of death is when Loggerheads get caught in fishing nets and drown for which the leading killer are shrimp and fish nets.

Conservation groups are trying to implement laws that will save Loggerhead turtles and get them off the endangered list. You can help spreading the word about this animal by liking it on facebook

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Thursday 23 August 2012 The Northern Night Monkey - Nature's Malaria Lab

The Northern night monkey (Aotus trivirgatus), also known as the northern owl monkey, is an arboreal primate native to Venezuela and north-central Brazil. Its color is mostly black or brown with vivid white markings on the face. Body size is 24 to 47 centimeters (9.4 inches to 18.5 inches) with a tail length of about 22 to 42 centimeters (8.7 inches to 16.5 inches). Adults of both sexes weigh about one kilogram (2.2 pounds).

The northern night monkey lives in woodlands including tropical rainforest. It is omnivorous, eating a variety of small invertebrates, fruits, nuts, leaves and bird's eggs.

An unusual trait of the northern night monkey is that it can carry the same malaria parasite that effects humans, making it valuable for medical research. While its use for this purpose has allowed great strides in the treatment of the disease, it has also led to the capture of large numbers of night monkeys to be used as lab animals. Since the 1970's, there have been efforts to regulate this trade. While regulation is certainly in order, it cannot be denied that many human lives have been saved because of the medical work using this animal.

The taxonomy of the night monkey is still in dispute. Before 1983, all species of owl monkey were regarded as subspecies of A. trivirgatus. In 1983 genetic evidence revealed enough divergence between the subspecies to justify classifying them as separate species. This classification is still not universally accepted. As further research is conducted, the taxonomy will undoubted" valign="middle">