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Rufous rat kangaroo - AEPYPRYMNUS RUFESCENS
Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
Location: Eastern coastal Australia.
Habitat: Terrestrial. Eucalypt forests and woodlands.
Description: The rat kangaroo looks like a huge rat, with long hind legs, hind feet lacking a first toe, and a well-haired, nonprehensile, long and tapering tail. Its ears are fairly long. Its fur is long and coarse, a grizzled reddish-gray on the back, and lighter on the belly, with a white hip stripe. The head and body length is 20", with an average weight of 6.5 lbs.
Behavior: This species is the largest of about six living species of Australian rat kangaroos. Strictly terrestrial, it prefers dense underbrush, tussock grass, and bracken through which it forages in the evening and at night. It eats grass, roots, and possibly fungi, which it is well able to scratch from the soil with its large, curved claws. During the day the rufous rat kangaroo sleeps curled up in a large nest of grass built against a fallen log, grass tussock, or similar shelter.
Reproduction: Little is known of reproduction in this species. Females with young in their pouches have been captured from January through March. The usual litter is a single young, although twins occasionally occur.
Note: The species is apparently extinct in Victoria, Australia, the victim of the non-indigenous fox which has been introduced into Australia like the rabbit - both with dire consequences.
Go to the Marsupials Page to get a general discussion of these animals.
Or go to the Kangaroo Index to study other kangaroos.
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