Kowari
Double comb - bag mouse ( Dasyuroides byrnei )
The double-comb bag mouse or Kowari ( Dasyuroides byrnei ) is a Beutelsäugerart from the family of Dasyuridae ( Dasyuridae ). Some classifications it is also classified in the genus Dasycercus.
Description
Double comb - bag mice are stocky built, mouse -like animals with short legs. Her back and her sides are gray, the belly is white. The front half of the tail is reddish in color, the back half is covered on top and bottom of long black hair. These hairs can be erected like a comb, owes them the way her name. These animals can reach a body length 14-18 cm, a tail length of 11-14 centimeters and a weight of 70 to 140 grams. Males are usually 30 grams heavier than females. The well-trained Pine is stocky and is designed to capture and chewing of the spoils. The dental formula of Kowaris is: I4/3-C2/2-P2-3/2-3-M4/3. The flattened palate bone, which is formed prominently in many marsupials, missing as in some other representatives of the family Dasyuridae
Dissemination and lifestyle
These animals live in the Lake Eyre Basin in northern South Australia and southwestern Queensland. Their habitat is dry grasslands and rocky deserts with less than 250 mm of rainfall per year. They are primarily nocturnal, but can sometimes be observed while sunbathing. Shelter they seek in self-dug or taken over from other animals building in which they build grass nests. Double comb - bag mice are bottom dwellers in the rule, but can also climb well. They are territorial and mark their territory with their scent glands secretion, whether as others Bag mice live solitary, it is not clear as several captive animals could be kept together.
They feed exclusively carnivorous. Their diet consists of insects, spiders, small vertebrates such as rodents, birds and lizards, and carrion.
Reproduction
After 30 - to 36 -day gestation, the female gives birth twice a year, three to seven (usually five or six) pups. This spending their first eight weeks of life in the mother's pouch, then they also ride on their backs. At three months they are weaned and mature independently and with eight months. The life expectancy is up to four years in nature, in captivity up to seven years.
Threat
The enactment by introduced predators such as the red fox and the conversion of their habitat in pastures are the main threat to the double comb - bag mouse dar. In one part of their range (for example the southern Northern Territory it has disappeared ), she is getting by the IUCN as endangered ( " vulnerable" ) listed.