Red-necked Pademelon
Encyclopedia
The Red-necked Pademelon (Thylogale thetis) is a forest
-dwelling marsupial
living in the eastern coastal region of Australia
. Mainly nocturnal, the Red-necked Pademelon is very shy and generally inhabits temperate forests near grassland, hiding in the forests by day and emerging into the grasslands to graze in the dusk.
The Red-necked Pademelon is brown-grey with a cream underbelly and a red-tinted neck and shoulders. It breeds in the autumn and spring in northern Australia, and in the summer in southern Australia. Predators include the Dingo
and the Red Fox
, however habitat destruction, particularly through land clearance, is currently the largest threat to the species. The Red-necked Pademelon is not currently listed as an endangered species
.
This species is closely related to the Red-legged Pademelon
.
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
-dwelling marsupial
Marsupial
Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, with the remaining 100 found in the Americas, primarily in South America, but with thirteen in Central...
living in the eastern coastal region of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Mainly nocturnal, the Red-necked Pademelon is very shy and generally inhabits temperate forests near grassland, hiding in the forests by day and emerging into the grasslands to graze in the dusk.
The Red-necked Pademelon is brown-grey with a cream underbelly and a red-tinted neck and shoulders. It breeds in the autumn and spring in northern Australia, and in the summer in southern Australia. Predators include the Dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
and the Red Fox
Red Fox
The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, as well as being the most geographically spread member of the Carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central America, and the steppes of Asia...
, however habitat destruction, particularly through land clearance, is currently the largest threat to the species. The Red-necked Pademelon is not currently listed as an endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
.
This species is closely related to the Red-legged Pademelon
Red-legged Pademelon
The Red-legged Pademelon is a species of small macropod found on the northeastern coast of Australia and in New Guinea. In Australia it has a scattered distribution from the tip of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland to around Tamworth in New South Wales...
.