Male northern quolls seem to sacrifice sleep in favour of having sex, behaviour that might be responsible for their early deaths, suggests new research into the endangered marsupials. Australian scientists have investigated why male northern quolls usually mate themselves to death after one season, while females of the species reproduce once but live up to […]
Tag: marsupials
Wombats the Size of Cars? Be Glad You Didn’t Live Back Then!
Taking a stroll down Mother Nature’s Memory Lane can be fascinating, but it’s also a reminder that humans today couldn’t cope with the everyday perils that lay in wait tens of thousands of years ago. Sharks the size of school buses, avians the size of Sesame Street’s Big Bird, lions that would all but dwarf […]
Eats, hops and breeds: New Zealand’s worsening wallaby plague
Pete Peeti flicks off the headlights, cuts the ignition and lets his truck roll quietly down a bush track, deep in the heart of New Zealand’s North Island. Twilight is slipping into night and rain is falling in thick drapes. “Close your door quietly when you get out,” Peeti says. He slings his gun over […]
Queensland koala funding diverted to rollercoaster could be much better spent, experts say
The Queensland government’s decision to quietly divert $2.7m from what it had previously promised would be a state-of-the-art koala research facility to build a rollercoaster instead was a public relations disaster. But the Queensland Conservation Council director, Dave Copeman, is not mourning the loss of the jettisoned Future Lab wildlife research centre at Dreamworld, nor […]
Smuggling of exotic animals in India reaches high as kangaroos spotted in Bengal
Illegal wildlife trafficking gangs have begun transporting kangaroos – native to Australia – to the eastern Indian state of West Bengal as the smuggling of exotic animals via India rises exponentially. Three of the marsupials were rescued by wildlife officers last month after a botched smuggling attempt when residents called in sightings in West Bengal’s […]
Australian dingoes are an ‘intermediary’ between wolves and domestic dog breeds
Scientists analyzed the genome of a desert dingo (Canis dingo) from a remote part of South Australia and compared it to the genomes of five domestic dog breeds (boxer, German shepherd dog, basenji, Great Dane, and Labrador retriever), as well as the genome of a Greenland wolf. Dogs are a highly successful model for informing […]
The genome of the numbat, a critically endangered Australian insectivorous marsupial, has been sequenced by two teams of genetic experts
The genome of the numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus), a critically endangered Australian insectivorous marsupial and the last living member of the Myrmecobiidae family, has been sequenced by two teams of genetic experts. Scientists and conservationists will be able to make more informed decisions about how to protect the species in the future thanks to the genomic […]
Island hideaway: has the endangered mahogany glider found a new home off the Great Barrier Reef?
If there has been rain and it’s after dark, Daryl Dickson listens for a shower of drops bumped loose from the leaves above. When it’s dry, it could be the faint sound of the caps of bloodwood blossoms landing on her roof that sends her off to grab a torch and catch a glimpse of […]