An experimental reintroduction programme for brush-tailed phascogales (Phascogale tapoatafa): the interface between captivity and the wild

Abstract

The tuan or brush-tailed phascogale (Phascogale tapoatafa) is a carnivorous marsupial belonging to the family Dasyuridae. Adult phascogales weigh 110–310 g and are primarily aboreal in their habits. Like many of the smaller Australian temperate zone marsupials, phascogales breed only once a year, in May–July during the austral winter. Females are monoestrous and can accommodate up to eight young in the pouch; the size of litters has been reported to vary from three to eight both in captivity and in the wild (Cuttle, 1982; Halley, 1992). Young are firmly attached to the teat until the age of seven weeks and are thereafter deposited in a nest when their mother is active. As in the related genus Antechinus, wild male phascogales characteristically die soon after their first breeding season at the age of about one year (Cuttle, 1982).