anything other than equal spacing means two species are going to rub up against each other, hence enforced equal spacing. We got equal spacing in the jaw-closing muscle, tooth strength, and average prey size. Thatâs pretty neat.â 17 Estimates are that the eastern quoll is three times as abundant and the (pre-disease) devil six times as abundant as the spotted-tailed quoll.
This photograph offers rare proof of the predatory ability of the spotted-tailed quoll.
This one has chased down and is killing a pademelon. (Courtesy Michael Good)
As the Australian continent dried out and heated up, the paucity of grazing or browsing vegetation shrank not only the megafauna but their replacements as well. Yet in this respect the Tasmanian devil is a veritable giant. Quolls aside, an adult male devil is up to 150 times larger than its closest marsupial relatives. Theyâre also completely unalike, an indication of how varied the evolution of Australiaâs marsupial carnivores has been.
Thus the swamp antechinus ( Antechinus minimus , âsmallest hedgehog equivalentâ) distributed across Tasmania and coastal Victoria, weighs about 65 grams. A strictly nocturnal insect eater and ground dwellerâunlike the even smaller brown antechinus ( A. stuartii ) which likes to live in treesâthis tiny marsupial is described as the smallest of the quolls. A unique feature of the antechinuses is semalparousness, the death of the male after sex. (It is also a feature of the life cycles of squid and flying ants.)
A male dusky antechinus in its favourite habitat of forest leaf litter. The tiny antechinus, weighing just 65 grams, is closely related to the Tasmanian devil. Males die within three weeks of mating, a feature of young devils since the onset of DFTD.
(Courtesy W.E. Brown)
The little red antechinus ( Antechinus rosamondae ), which weighs about 40 grams and preys vigorously on lizards, seems to owe its precarious existence along the mid-north coast of Western Australia to the fire-resistant, inedible woolly spinifex in which it lives.
The kowari ( Dasyuroides byrnei ) of central Australia, one of a number of marsupial species that become torpid during cold weather, is also a fierce hunter and vocally aggressive:
A variety of sounds are produced, including an open-mouthed hissing and a loud, staccato chattering, both made in response to threats from predators or other kowaris . . . Vigorous tail-switching, reminiscent of an angry cat, is used as a threat display. 18
The red-tailed phascogale ( Phascogale calura ) survives in Australiaâs arid centre through an impressive adaptation: it is immune to the poisonous plants upon which it feeds, as are the native carnivores which prey upon it. But the poison fluoroacetate, found in the Australian legumes Gastrolobium spp. and Oxylobium spp., kills introduced species.
An unusual adaptation is that of the long-tailed planigale ( Planigale ingrami ), one of the worldâs smallest mammals (the average male adult weighs 4.2 grams). Its head is flattened so that it can enter cracks and narrow spaces in search of the insects, lizards and small mammals which it attacks with ferocity.
A species as endangered as the spotted-tailed quoll, and matching the devil for size, now has full claim on being Tasmaniaâs top order predator. The wedge-tailed eagle is a supreme hunter, one of the worldâs largest eagles. This majestic raptor, although distributed across Australia and New Guinea, is listed as vulnerable in Tasmania (subspecies Aquila audax fleayi ). Its diet is a practical one, relying generally on possums, wallabies, rabbits, hares, birds and carrion. This means that wedge-tailed eagles and devils are direct competitors.
The eagle, like the thylacine, has long been demonised as a lamb-killer and has endured heavy persecution. Indeed, the formation in 1884 of the Buckland and Spring Bay Tiger and Eagle Extermination Society set in motion the Tasmanian
This photograph offers rare proof of the predatory ability of the spotted-tailed quoll.
This one has chased down and is killing a pademelon. (Courtesy Michael Good)
As the Australian continent dried out and heated up, the paucity of grazing or browsing vegetation shrank not only the megafauna but their replacements as well. Yet in this respect the Tasmanian devil is a veritable giant. Quolls aside, an adult male devil is up to 150 times larger than its closest marsupial relatives. Theyâre also completely unalike, an indication of how varied the evolution of Australiaâs marsupial carnivores has been.
Thus the swamp antechinus ( Antechinus minimus , âsmallest hedgehog equivalentâ) distributed across Tasmania and coastal Victoria, weighs about 65 grams. A strictly nocturnal insect eater and ground dwellerâunlike the even smaller brown antechinus ( A. stuartii ) which likes to live in treesâthis tiny marsupial is described as the smallest of the quolls. A unique feature of the antechinuses is semalparousness, the death of the male after sex. (It is also a feature of the life cycles of squid and flying ants.)
A male dusky antechinus in its favourite habitat of forest leaf litter. The tiny antechinus, weighing just 65 grams, is closely related to the Tasmanian devil. Males die within three weeks of mating, a feature of young devils since the onset of DFTD.
(Courtesy W.E. Brown)
The little red antechinus ( Antechinus rosamondae ), which weighs about 40 grams and preys vigorously on lizards, seems to owe its precarious existence along the mid-north coast of Western Australia to the fire-resistant, inedible woolly spinifex in which it lives.
The kowari ( Dasyuroides byrnei ) of central Australia, one of a number of marsupial species that become torpid during cold weather, is also a fierce hunter and vocally aggressive:
A variety of sounds are produced, including an open-mouthed hissing and a loud, staccato chattering, both made in response to threats from predators or other kowaris . . . Vigorous tail-switching, reminiscent of an angry cat, is used as a threat display. 18
The red-tailed phascogale ( Phascogale calura ) survives in Australiaâs arid centre through an impressive adaptation: it is immune to the poisonous plants upon which it feeds, as are the native carnivores which prey upon it. But the poison fluoroacetate, found in the Australian legumes Gastrolobium spp. and Oxylobium spp., kills introduced species.
An unusual adaptation is that of the long-tailed planigale ( Planigale ingrami ), one of the worldâs smallest mammals (the average male adult weighs 4.2 grams). Its head is flattened so that it can enter cracks and narrow spaces in search of the insects, lizards and small mammals which it attacks with ferocity.
A species as endangered as the spotted-tailed quoll, and matching the devil for size, now has full claim on being Tasmaniaâs top order predator. The wedge-tailed eagle is a supreme hunter, one of the worldâs largest eagles. This majestic raptor, although distributed across Australia and New Guinea, is listed as vulnerable in Tasmania (subspecies Aquila audax fleayi ). Its diet is a practical one, relying generally on possums, wallabies, rabbits, hares, birds and carrion. This means that wedge-tailed eagles and devils are direct competitors.
The eagle, like the thylacine, has long been demonised as a lamb-killer and has endured heavy persecution. Indeed, the formation in 1884 of the Buckland and Spring Bay Tiger and Eagle Extermination Society set in motion the Tasmanian
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