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RED LEGGED PADEMELON

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

 

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