Red-legged Pademelons, July 2012

Christina

Red-legged pademelons (Thylogale stigmatica) are usually solitary animals, but might be feeding together occasionally.
They graze on our lawn, but mostly browse on leaves, flowers and also eat fruit ( in this photo: native mangosteen).

At the moment two of the females have pouch young, who have started to explore the outside world.
( Joeys have visible hair at 19-21 weeks, take their first steps outside the pouch- indicated by dirty feet- at 22-26 weeks and leave the pouch at 26-28 weeks of age).

 

They first leave the pouch in the typical fashion of all kangaroos: they fall out.
The mother is in control by either tightening her pouch muscles to firmly keep the baby inside or by relaxing the pouch opening and letting the joey fall out.
She can even actively tip it out by contracting the pouch – when she wants to clean it without the young inside, for example.

This young female has barely reached sexual maturity, being just one year old and has attracted the interest of one of the big males.
Characteristic for kangaroos is his behaviour: he approaches her, sniffs her cloacal region and her pouch opening (often not too gently!). He also grasps her near the base of her tail. ‘Chesting’, standing in front of her and grasping her head, is another courtship behaviour.
He is making the soft, clicking sounds, she is not ready to mate and rejects him by moving away and making the harsh, squeaky, rasping sounds.

More on the biology of the larger kangaroos can be found in Terence J. Dawson’s book: “Kangaroos” (CSIRO publishing).

CASSOWARY UPDATE:

2 months after starting to travel together and mating quite often (we watched them several times in our garden), with her seeming more interested in sex than him – apparent by her sitting down invitingly and him often just ingnoring her- he is still not brooding the 8 eggs, which she has already laid.
This would be a very large clutch, indeed. We can’t image how he could raise so many chicks; usually he turns up with 3 and they seem to wear him out quite a bit.
The first eggs were laid more than 6 weeks ago; how long can they survive in the open without being incubated?
This year’s 2 chicks have separated and are growing fast, with visibly blue faces and necks developing.

Mating Cassowaries, May 2012

Christina

This morning we had the privilege to observe cassowaries mating.

First the female sits down, then the male behind her, shuffling closer and closer.

It looks rather clumsy and it is impossible to tell whether he was successful, too many long feathers obscuring the view…

Male cassowaries, as the other ratites, have a pseudo-penis, which may make mating easier.

The adult birds were very relaxed, they did not even mind one of the chicks stepping over the female’s neck while she was sitting down for mating!

We watched the same pair mating in almost the same spot two years ago; maybe the female prefers the soft grass to a prickly forest floor and enjoys the ” privacy” of a Heliconia leaf over her head.

We didn’t expect the cassowaries to be in mating mood as yet, he usually looks after the chicks a bit longer.

What triggers the mating behaviour?

It has been a very good season with plenty of food and he only had to share it with 2 chicks, having lost the other 3 very early after hatching. He also recovered very well from a deep wound to his left heel. He does not look as exhausted and appears to be in better condition than in previous years.

I am writing this blog on our front veranda, while cassowary dad and the 2 chicks are strolling past, what a fantastic place to be!

Cassowary Family Life, May 2012

Christina

The local male cassowary looks after the chicks alone, like any other cassowary dad.

He crosses paths with the local female occasionally, and when they are ready to mate they travel together for a few weeks.

We would not expect this to happen for  a few months yet, his chicks being approximately 6 months old,  and he usually looks after them for about 9 months.

Yesterday evening the whole family arrived together (dad, the 2 chicks and mum) and, after picking up some palm fruits and drinking from our pond, disappeared into the forest.

I was not quite game enough to follow them, to find out whether they would bed down together, as well. Usually, when I tried to follow a cassowary -at a safe distance- I was always noticed  and chose to retreat.

So why is there the perception that cassowaries are solitairy animals? Certainly our male and female get along very well and the same is true for some cassowaries in the Daintree area.

Any biologists out there doing studies on cassoway behaviour?

Frogs, Frogs, Frogs, April 2012

Christina

It appears the wet season is over; it was a strange one this time: mostly very dry, then more than 1000mm in March and April.

During the few wetter nights in October and December, we had dozens of Dainty Green Tree Frogs (Litoria gracilenta) sitting in the shrubs and Heliconias around the pond, calling all night and laying many clutches of eggs.

One night more  Common Tree Frogs (Litoria caerulea) than ever  called and mated

and a few Northern Barred Frogs (Mixophyes coggeri) joined the chorus.

frogs

There were so many frogs everywhere, that this one only found a place to sit on top of another frog:

Now that it is drier, it is the time of the Barred Frogs:

They do not like flooding rains, laying their eggs not into the water, but propelling  them onto rocks along the creek and our pond with their hindlegs. The tadpoles hatch after about a week and drop into the water, where they grow into very large (50-60mm) tadpoles.  We have seen an adult frog, that was 120mm long. They spend their lives on the forest floor, being perfectly camouflaged among the leaf litter. They do not hop away when approached and we have to manually move the odd one sitting in the driveway.