Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
tail. They move rapidly through the forest. Cuscuses are more common in New
Guinea and restricted to the rainforest. Cuscuses have a flat face, short ears, and a
mostly naked, scaly, prehensile tail. They move slowly through the forest. Both are
arboreal and great climbers. Both eat fruit and leaves. Cuscuses will also eat
insects, eggs, and nestling birds. In New Guinea, cuscuses are hunted for their meat
and soft dense fur.
Kangaroos and their relatives that live in the rainforest include pademelons,
wallabies, and tree kangaroos. Pademelons are small kangaroo-like marsupials that
prefer solitary nocturnal life in the rainforest. They eat fallen leaves and fruits. For-
est wallabies are larger than pademelons and look like small kangaroos. They have
small ears and long tails used for stability. Their hindquarters are more muscular
and their hind legs are longer than their forelimbs. Dark in color they blend in well
in the dark forest understory. Like pademelons, forest wallabies are mainly noctur-
nal, solitary browsers.
Tree kangaroos are the largest arboreal herbivores of the East Malesian rainfor-
est (see Figure 3.19). They stand about 1.5-2 ft (450-650 mm) tall and have long,
thick tails measuring 2-3 ft (600-900 mm) and weigh 8-29 lbs (3.7-13 kg) depend-
ing on the species. Tree kangaroos' legs are stouter and sturdier than those of their
terrestrial cousins. They are agile climbers and can leap from branch to branch or
to the ground. They are nocturnal and solitary. They browse on leaves and eat fruit
and flowers. Because of their large size and arboreal lifestyle, the tree kangaroo has
few predators other than the New Guinea Harpy Eagle and humans. They are
hunted in New Guinea for their thick fur and meat. Clear-cutting also threatens
their survival.
Rainforest bandicoots are rat-like marsupials with long pointed noses and large
ears. This family only occurs on New Guinea and its nearby islands. Its four genera
contain the spiny bandicoots, Seran Island bandicoot, New Guinea mouse bandi-
coot, and the New Guinea bandicoot. Rainforest bandicoots are terrestrial, noctur-
nal omnivores. They are an important protein source for the indigenous people of
the rainforest.
Quolls and antechinus are the carnivorous marsupials of the rainforest.
Quolls tend to be aggressive, nocturnal animals. They feed on birds, young rats,
gliding possums, and other small arboreal and terrestrial mammals, reptiles, and
invertebrates. The spotted-tail quoll is the largest marsupial carnivore in the rain-
forests of this subregion. It is 1-2.5 ft (380-760 mm) in length and weighs up to
15 lbs (7 kg). Antechinus are mouse-size carnivores that eat mostly invertebrates
such as beetles, spiders, and cockroaches. They are often called marsupial mice.
Brown antechinus males have a peculiar tendency to die near the end of or just af-
ter the mating season, when they are less than a year old. The stress of frantically
looking for mates, mating for six hours at a time, and aggressively fighting other
males, probably leaves them susceptible to parasites and infections that quickly
kill them.
