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Project Noah Nature School
Antechinus flavipes?
We found this rat-like creature in our patio this morning near our cat's food dish (fortunately the cat was not around)! We think it is the native marsupial yellow-footed antechinus; however, we are not 100% sure - other possibilities include subtropical antechinus (Antechinus subtropicus) and bush rat (Rattus fuscipes). We are going with antechinus flavipes due to the ear shape, the colouring and the furry feet/tail. We think it was probably a fully grown adult as its body length was about 140-150mm. I wish we'd taken more photos but we were very concerned about stressing it out too much as it did NOT like being held or being in the bucket. We released it into the garden quickly. Additional resources: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2.... http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/...
Spotted on Sep 6, 2012
Submitted on Sep 6, 2012
4 Comments
Cutecutecutecutecute!!!
Very cute! Never seen one before, but I recall the research about the short lived boys and their stress responses, which makes me think this must be a girl?
Thanks Lori. It was really cute. Pretty exciting to see one. (We also saw some little mouse-like creatures on a hike in the Bunya Mountains National Park about 18 months ago, and we ID'd them as yellow-footed antechinus, but I'm not so sure now. I think I'll go back and revisit that spotting! http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/859...)
Never seen antechinus in the flesh, but given the photos, that is probably a good guess. Very cute.