The Red Legged Pademelon
There are variety of Mammals that is breed and kept in Wildlife Fauna Janda Baik. Here is only some of them.
Red-Legged Pademelons are shy, elusive little creatures, not seen easily in
their dense habitat of predominantly rainforest. They occur in patches from
the Cape of York to as far south as Coffs Harbour. Their are actually 3
other species of Pademelon, The Red-Necked, The Red-Bellied, and the Dusky
Pademelon which is only found in New Guinea. Their name is thought to have
come from the word 'Paddymalla" which is an Aboriginal term for 'small
kangaroo from the forest'. When first acquiring a young joey Pademelon, it
is hard to identify when they are not commonly found. They are very dark
little joeys, and of course are much smaller than the wallabies. Pademelons
forage on the undergrowth of dense forests, and include native fruits in
their diet of grasses, leaves, herbs, and shrubs. They never venture more
than approximately 70 metres from the undergrowth, to graze, and only do so
at night. They have a gestation period of around 30 days, and become
sexually mature at about 1 year old. They use a rasping hiss when acting
aggressively, and the mother 'clucks' softly to her young, as does the male
when interested in a female. As it tends to go with the smaller macropods,
they can show incredible aggression for such a small animal, and I have seen
adults run for their lives when chased by a Pademelon.
DESCRIPTION - The red-legged Pademelon is a small compact macropod with
rounded ears, a furless nose, a relatively short, thick tail and relatively
short syndactyluus hind feet. The tail is covered in short, sparse fur and
the skin of the tail has the appearance of a fine mesh. It has thick, soft
fur ranging from light rufous through rich dark brown to dark grey/brown
extending over the head, back and sides. When parted their fur is often a
smoky blue colour. Their hind feet are dark chestnut or very dark brown and
are silky to touch. The belly and chest areas are cream or pale grey in
colour. They have reddish brown (chestnut) markings on the cheeks, thighs
and forearms and faint hip and cheek stripes. The cheeks stripes extending
from the muzzle to underneath the front of the eye. Some may also have pink
markings on the nose and/or a white tip on the tail.
SIZE - The adult Pademelon measures between 385 - 540mm from the nose to the
base of the tail and has a tail length of 300 - 480mm. The mature female has
an average weight of 3.3kg with a maximum of 4.2kg and the mature male's
average weight is 4.9kg with a maximum of 6.8kg. The Red-legged Pademelon is
closest in weight to the Parma Wallaby and the Unadorned Rock Wallaby.
HABITAT - It inhabits the edges of rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest
areas of coastal eastern Australia from Newcastle NSW, to the tip of Cape
York Peninsula QLD, and are also found in Papua New Guinea. During the Day
they forage in forest areas over an area of 1.6ha and at night they emerge
into clearings or to grassy areas at the forest edge, grazing over an
average area of 1.0 ha but will generally move no further than 70m from the
treeline.
BEHAVIOUR - It spends from pre-dawn to mid-morning and mid-afternoon to just
after dusk browsing in forest areas, moving over a large distance looking
for preferred food items. After dusk they move to grassy areas, to graze,
either in forest clearings on on the forest edge. They never move far from
cover and return to the forest before dawn. When moving to and from grazing
sites, they follow 'tunnels' made in forest undergrowth and grass. They move
along these runways at a rapid pace, hopping on the hind legs with the tail
held out stiffly behind. Once grazing or when browsing, it moves slowly with
a pentapedal action or a bipedal hop. They rest periodically by sitting with
the tail between the legs, leaning back on a rock or tree and sleep from
mid-morning to mid-afternoon in a similar position but slump forward to rest
the head on the tail or on the ground between the legs. Males during
courtship and females calling their young make a soft clicking sound. In
hostile confrontations, females rejecting courtship advances and alarmed or
disturbed young, they make a loud, rasping noise. Generally a shy, solitary
animal, especially during the day whilst browsing or sleeping, they will
sometimes form small groups of up to four animals whilst grazing at night.
If disturbed, they will not stay bunched together like social macropods but
will scatter instead. Being solitary animals, they are rarely seen fighting.
They would rather avoid each other and go about their business.