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Fat-tailed dunnart, narrow-footed marsupial mouse - SMINTHOPSIS CRASSICAUDATA
Possibly Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Dunnart": "Dunnart" probably derives from a native Australian word, as do most of the common names of Australia's animals. The Latin name means "mouse-like fat-tailed."
Location: Southern Australia.
Habitat: Terrestrial. It prefers dry areas.
Description: The dunnart is a cute mouselike marsupial with wide face, big eyes, and a sharply pointed nose. It small limbs, large ears, and a thick tail. The coat is a soft ashy gray color on the back, and lighter on the belly. It reaches a length of 3" to 3.5" and weighs 0.5 to 1.0 oz.
Behavior: The dunnart is active at night, and consumes as much as its own body weight daily, living almost exclusively upon small insects and spiders. Unlike some of its close relatives, the dunnart will not catch and eat vertebrates. When food is scarce it may become lethargic. However, it can draw upon fat reserves stored in its thick tail, just as a camel uses its hump. The dunnart burrows in the ground, lives under rocks, or builds nests of leaves and grass in sheltered places such as hollow logs.
Reproduction: Females breed year round, producing successive litters of up to ten young each time. Gestation is only 13-16 days. The female pouch is well developed where the young stay for about forty days. They are then placed in a nest, and do not become entirely independent until they are between 60 to 70 days old.
Go to the Marsupials Page, to get a general discussion of these animals.
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