Home range and habitat use by Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) within a rainforest fragment in north Queensland
In: Wildlife research, Band 26, Heft 2, S. 129
ISSN: 1448-5494, 1035-3712
Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi),
one the largest arboreal mammals in Australia, has been poorly studied owing
to its limited distributional range and secretive habits within tropical
rainforests. This study investigated the way
D. lumholtzi used its habitat within a rainforest
fragment on the Atherton Tableland, North Queensland. Thirteen animals were
fitted with radio-collars to determine their spatial and temporal use of
habitat. Female D. lumholtzi used exclusive home ranges
averaging 0.7 ha in area (90% harmonic mean), while males occupied
larger home ranges of an average of approximately 2 ha, allowing for a density
of 1.4–1.5 adult tree-kangaroos per hectare within the study area. The
exception to this home- range size was one juvenile male presumably undergoing
post-natal dispersal that used several forest fragments and other habitats,
with a home range of 332 ha. Home ranges of males overlapped in part the
ranges of several females. Home ranges of males tended to abut those of other
males, and antagonistic encounters occurred at the boundaries of the home
ranges. Males had a significantly larger body size than females (males 8.63
kg; females 7.05 kg). Social interactions between individuals, apart from
antagonistic male–male encounters, were observed infrequently. Only
6% and 2.7% of fixes for females and males, respectively,
included the presence of another animal in the same or adjacent tree at the
time of location. Lumholtz's tree-kangaroos were associated with a wide
range of rainforest trees and a smaller number of vine species. However, in
general, individual animals regularly associated with only a small suite (mean
3.5 species with >10% usage) of tree species present within their
home range, and appeared to display individual preferences for certain
species. Individual radio-tracked D. lumholtzi were
visible only 9.4% of the time at night, and 20% of the time
during the day. Males and females were as visible as each other, and both were
seen significantly lower in the canopy and into the mid-storey during the
night than during the day.