other names

Red-Bellied Pademelon or Rufous Wallaby

DESCRIPTION

Males - 630mm head and body length with a tail length of 345 to 483mm. Weight from 3.8 to 12kg with an average of around 7kg. Rich dark brown to dark grey-brown above. Buff below with rufous tinge, especially at lower abdomen. Tail about two thirds the length of head and body.

Females - 560mm head and body length with a tail length of around 320mm. Weight from 2.4 to 10kg. Appearance similar to males.

The Tasmanian Pademelon can only be found in Tasmania and the larger islands of Bass Strait, although it was once also on mainland Australia in south-eastern South Australia and southern Victoria. Its preferred habitat is dense vegetation of wet schlerophyll forests, rainforest and tea-tree shrubs. It can also be found however in more open, grassy dry-schlerophyll forest where most gullies and dense vegetation provide suitable day time cover. The diet of the pademelon is mainly short green grasses and herbs, occasionally supplemented by browse from taller woody plants. At night the pademelon travels to pasture to feed, rarely venturing more than 100 metres from the forest edge. Daytime grazing is very uncommon and the pademelon usually returns to the forest by morning twilight. The home range for the Tasmanian Pademelon can be as large as 170 hectares and individuals can travel to two kilometres a night. Although the pademelon can graze in groups at night there is no evidence of a colony structure. Vocalilsatoins are uncommon although occasionally a guttural hiss is uttered during squabbles and males produce a clucking sound when following females in oestrous (on heat).