Mammals - Ground Species

The forest floor harbours many large and small rodents and marsupials who advertise their presence by their sounds.

You might hear a soft rustling through the leaf litter, digging and scratching, chewing noises, twigs snapping or the thump of hopping feet. If you proceed very quietly along established walking tracks, you could see Melomys and native rats darting across the track or a family group of Red-legged Pademelons (Thylogale stigmatica stigmatica) sitting and listening before vanishing into the foliage. Many of these creatures can be very evasive so you will need to be quiet and some are nocturnal.

 
The Musky Rat-kangaroo

In the morning look for the Musky Rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus), a very dark brown marsupial macropod (kangaroo family) whose body is only about 23cm (9 inches) long foraging for fruits on the rainforest floor. This animal is regularly seen around the volcanic lakes Eacham and Barrine and around the bases of the famous Curtain Fig and Cathredral Fig trees on the Atherton Tablelands. The Musky Rat-kangaroo prefers the wetter parts of the forest and feeds on fallen fruits found in the leaf litter as well as small invertebrates such as earthworms and grasshoppers. They give birth to two or three babies which stay in their mother's pouch for about 21 weeks before emerging to spend most of their time in their forest floor nest. When they are a little older, they will accompany the female on her feeding rounds.

 
The Tropical Bettong

Another interesting but very rare ground-dwelling mammal is the Tropical Bettong (Bettongia tropica). This strictly nocturnal animal has been found at only a few places in the Wet Tropics but not normally in rainforest, preferring the more open forest types on the drier western side of the Great Dividing Range. Looking a bit like a small kangaroo bent forward but having a pointed face shape, it feeds mostly on fungi and seems to have a special digestive system to obtain nutrients from this unusual diet.

 
The White-tailed Rat

While most rodents will make a hasty retreat from human visitors, one not so easily intimidated is the White-tailed Rat (Uromys caudimaculatus). This large rat has a body length of 30cm (1 foot) and the end half of its 33cm (13 inch) tail is white and without fur (which is the easiest way to identify them). The White-tailed Rat can be seen on the forest floor at night but it is just as likely to be seen climbing around tree branches. Although most rodents are known for their powerful teeth, this one can eat through the hardest of seed coats. The next time you find a coconut on the ground with a perfectly round hole about 2 cm (3/4 inch) in diameter drilled through it, you will know that a White-tailed Rat found it first!

Another ground-dweller is quite the predator. An attractive but elusive night-time hunter of both the forest floor and the canopy is the Spotted-tailed Quoll, also known as the Tiger Quoll. There are two species of quoll in the Wet Tropics: the northern subspecies of the Spotted-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus gracilis) and the smaller Northern Quoll (D. hallucatus). They are well known for their aggressive dispositions, described in books as "pugnacious", "ferocious" and "savage". The Quoll is a carnivore, preferring rodents, small macropods, birds and reptiles, although large insects, some fruit and even carrion is included in their diet. The Quolls are not quite standard marsupials in that they don't have a real pouch. During breeding season, the skin around the female's nipple area extends into a flap which partially covers the young. Females have 6 teats but the number of young born can range from one to eight. Young remain in the pseudo-pouch for several weeks before being left in a nest hollow or cave and attended to by the female. Independence is usually reached by 18 weeks and sexual maturity is at one year.

There are many other mammals to look for in the Wet Tropics such as Melomys (native rats), Hydromys (the water rat whose fine swimming abilities evoke images of the river otter), Northern Brown Bandicoots (often seen darting across roads at night), their paler rainforest cousins the Long-nosed Bandicoot, Agile Wallabies (look for them hanging around the golf courses of the Northern Beaches area of Cairns), and the adorable Red-legged Pademelon.