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The brush tailed bettong

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by Onychorhynchus coronatus, 7 Oct 2020.

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  1. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    All the bettongs in the US are Woylie, there are no Tasmanian or Northern Bettongs here and there probably never were historically. I'd imagine this is one of the examples where the USDA reports are not to be fully trusted.

    ~Thylo
     
    ThylacineAlive, 9 Oct 2020
    #61
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  2. Onychorhynchus coronatus

    Onychorhynchus coronatus Well-Known Member

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    That is quite a shame.

    Did you see the video I posted above ?

    I think it really highlights how engaging these animals can be for people and how they can be excellent animals for educators to use in talks.
     
    Last edited: 9 Oct 2020
    Onychorhynchus coronatus, 9 Oct 2020
    #62
  3. EsserWarrior

    EsserWarrior Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    There's only one person - to my knowledge - that does it and actually gets public attention. She has a monopoly over Wisconsin. She's been educating for 35+ years (and was a teacher for several years before that), so I'm hoping to take over Wisconsin once she retires.



    I've seen that video before. It's the same female that they have now. She was born at their facility back when Animal Wonders Montana had a breeding pair. Either the breeding pair or one of their offspring was sent to Oak Creek.
     
    EsserWarrior, 9 Oct 2020
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  4. TinoPup

    TinoPup Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    The facilities themselves are calling them northern, not just USDA. One place has both northern and woylie.
     
    TinoPup, 9 Oct 2020
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  5. EsserWarrior

    EsserWarrior Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    They look very similar.
     
    EsserWarrior, 10 Oct 2020
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  6. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    How are these two taxa best distinguished?
     
    birdsandbats, 10 Oct 2020
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  7. Onychorhynchus coronatus

    Onychorhynchus coronatus Well-Known Member

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    It seems like you have a good strategic plan figured out and I wish you all the luck in the world with achieving this, I'm sure you are going to do very well ;)
     
    Onychorhynchus coronatus, 10 Oct 2020
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  8. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    By distribution mostly. They are really similar. Northern Bettongs tend to be a straight silvered-grey whereas Brush-taileds usually have a buffy wash on the face and parts of the body, but it's not the kind of differentiation which one could make definitely from a photo and it is in any case not a particularly reliable distinction. Northerns are slightly smaller as well, but again that is not something which can be reliably used as a distinction.

    In terms of zoos, the most important distinction is that Brush-taileds are commonly held in captivity outside of Australia - because they had an established captive population within Australia from which they could be exported - and Northerns are not at all. I understand that TinoPup doesn't know how Australia's marsupial exports work, but saying that Roadside Zoo X "has other rare animals" has literally no bearing on whether they could have Northern Bettongs.
     
    Chlidonias, 10 Oct 2020
    #68
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  9. MRJ

    MRJ Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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    I've been looking through all my books and really I can't see how anybody can distinguish between these two species with confidence. I would have no problems distinguishing between burrowing, eastern, rufous and brush-tailed bettongs but between brush-tailed and northerns, it would be very hard.
     
    MRJ, 10 Oct 2020
    #69
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