The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals
attacks of enemies by mimicking the characteristic peculiarities of its environment, as obtains so generally among insects and other of the lower orders of animated nature. A closely analogous sleeping attitude, it may be mentioned, is assumed by one of the African lemurs or pottos, which have been dealt with in a previous chapter.
Although in captivity the koala takes kindly to a mixed diet in which bread-and-milk and fruit may form substantial elements, it can rarely be induced to altogether dispense with its customary gum-leaf regimen, and it is this circumstance that mainly accounts for its rarity in European menageries. Time and again, however, this interesting animal has put in an appearance at the Regent’s Park; but in spite of Kew Gardens and other sources being laid under contribution for a supply of gum-tree leaves, its sojourn there has been but brief. As a matter of fact, the common or blue gum-tree, which is alone cultivated and available in any quantity in this country, and which is indigenous to Tasmania, is not the species on which the koala is accustomed to feed. Of gum-trees there are some hundred species, every one differing in the peculiarity
of its aromatic scent and flavour, and having its special clientèle among the ranks of leaf-browsing animals. So far as the writer’s observations extended, it was the big Queensland “white” and “swamp” gums that were especially patronised by the Australian bears, and these are not grown in England.
Although at first sight, and normally so far as the younger individuals are concerned, the koala would appear to represent the most perfect embodiment of peace and goodwill among mammals, he is accredited at a maturer age, when crossed in love or goaded to resentment by some other cause, to give way to fits of ungovernable rage. These temporary lapses are, however, very transient, and our little friend soon recovers his customary bland placidity. While it is being threshed out, nevertheless, the “burden of song” delivered by rival claimants for a partner’s favours is a remarkable phenomenon. The circumstance that the vocal duet is commonly executed high up among the branches of the loftiest gums no doubt adds very considerably to both the timbre of the “music” and the distance to which it is carried. The old-time phrase of “making the welkin ring” would undoubtedly have been applied with alacrity and singular appropriateness by the poets of the departed century to the love-song of the koala, had they been privileged to hear it.
Among the examples of the koala which have been in residence at the Zoo, one of them came to a pathetic end. As told to the writer by Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the late superintendent, it appears that the little animal, on exhibition in the gardens during the day, was brought into the house at night, and allowed the run of a room which, among other furniture, included a large swing looking-glass. One morning the little creature was found crushed to death beneath the mirror, upon which it had apparently climbed and over-balanced. The information that the animal was a female evoked the suspicion that personal vanity and
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
KOALA, OR AUSTRALIAN NATIVE BEAR.
The koala has no tail, and is a stout, clumsily built animal, about 32 inches in length, with thick woolly fur of a greyish colour.
Photo by W. SavilU-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Miljurd-on-Sea.
KOALA, OR AUSTRALIAN NATIVE BEAR.
These animals make a peculiarly plaintive cry when molested in any way by human beings. 357
of the World358 The Living Animals
its untimely end.the admiration of its own image in the glass had some share in compassing Possibly, however, it hailed in the reflection the welcome advent of a companion to share its lone banishment from the land of the gum-tree, and in its efforts to greet it thus came to grief. its birth The female koala produces but one cub at a time. At an early period after this is transferred to its mother's back, and is thus transported until its dimensions are about one-half of those of its parent. The pair as shown in the illustration on page 355 presents, under these conditions, an essentially grotesque aspect.
It is a noteworthy circumstance that, compared with the male, the female koala is but rarely to be observed wandering abroad during broad daylight. As with the typical phalangers, food is consumed chiefly at night or during the brief Australian twilight hours. While the male at certain periods, more especially the months of March and April, is much in evidence in daytime to both the senses of sight and hearing, as attested to on a previous page, the female spends the whole or greater portion of the day clinging as an inert sleeping mass to a -convenient branch. " Bear "-shooting in Australia, as might be anticipated from the description here given of the animal's habits and temperament, affords but sorry sport. It may further be remarked that those who have shot at and only disabled one of these inoffensive little creatures are scarcely likely to repeat the experiment. The cry of a wounded koala has been itaptly compared to that of a distressed child, but still more pathetic. When fatally shot, also more frequently than otherwise clings tenaciously back-downwards, like the South American . tree-branch, and is thus frequently irrecoverable. With the non- sloths, to the supporting sentimental Australian furrier the koala's pelt of soft, crisp, ashy-grey fur is unfortunately in considerable demand, being made up mostly, with the quaint round head and tufted ears intact, into, it must be confessed, singularly attractive and warm rugs.
The correspondence of the koala in form and habits to the sloths among the higher mammalia has been previously mentioned. The parrallelism might be pursued in yet another direction. In earlier times the small tree-inhabiting South American sloths were supplemented by ground-frequenting species, such as the Megatherium, which were of comparatively titanic proportions. The epoch of the accredited existence of these huge ground- sloths was so comparatively recent the later tertiaries that it is even yet not regarded as altogether improbable that some existing representative of the race may yet be discovered in the fastnesses of the South American forests, and thus claim a niche in the pages of a subsequent edition of "LIVING ANIMALS." In a like manner the little " Australian Bear " sloth-like tree-frequenting had his primeval ground-dwelling colossi, and there is yet a lurking hope among enthusiastic zoologists that some surviving scion of the little koala's doughty forebears may yet turn up in the practically unexplored Central Australian wildernesses. Some such anticipations, as a matter of fact, stimulated the hopes and aspira-tions of the participators in one of the latest of these exploring expeditions, which, while not successful in this instance in obtaining so great a prize, secured for science that most interesting Photo by w.saviiie.Kent,F.z.s.] [Miford-on-sea. and previously unknown marsupial mammal the SQUIRREL-LIKE FLYiNG-pnALANGER OP VICTORIA.
This animal has soft grey fur like that of the chinchilla. Pouched Mole.
Marsupials and Monotremes 359
THE TYPICAL PHALANGERS.
The typical PHALANGERS, or OPOSSUMS, as they are familiarly known throughout Australia, include a very considerable number of representatives, ranging in size from that of a small mouse to that of a full-grown cat. All are essentially arboreal in their habits, feeding principally on the leaves and flowers of the various gums. They are for the most part strictly nocturnal in their habits, and make their homes and retiring-places during the day in the hollow trunks and limbs that are of such abundant occurrence in the periodically fire-swept Australian forests. Almost all the larger species are notable for the length, thickness, and exquisitely fine texture of their fur, a circumstance for which they are consequently laid under heavy penalties for the sake of their pelts. The island colony of Tasmania, in the extreme south, with its colder climate, as might be anticipated, produces the finest qualities of these furs, that of the BLACK or SOOTY OPOSSUM, which is peculiar to the island, being most highly prized. The length and furry character of their in many instances prehensile tails also form a conspicuous feature of this group. Nature, in fact, apparently distributed caudal material so over-liberally Photo ly W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea. among these marsupials that the little koala LARGER FLYING-PHALANGER, had to make shift without. A nearly pure white example.
The group of the Phalanger Family popularly known as FLYING-SQUIRRELS, or more correctly as FLYING-PHALANGERS, is almost universally admitted to include some of the most beautiful of living mammals. In external " " mechanism is concerned, these animals flyingstructure, so far as their peculiar so-called coincide in a remarkable manner with the true flying-squirrels, belonging to the Eodent Order, is there flight, inindigenous to the Asiatic and American Continents. In neither instance the true sense of the term, similar to that of birds and bats, but the fore and hind limbs are connected by a parachute-like membrane, which, outstretched when the animal leaps from tree to tree, buoys it up and enables its owner to traverse, in a straight and gradually descending line only, very considerable distances.
The smaller squirrel-like form common to the south-eastern districts of Australia, and on account of its predilection for sweets commonly known as the SUGAR-SQUIRREL, makes a most charming little pet. For the most part addicted to sleep, and impatient at being disturbed during the day, towards sundown it wakes up, and is full of frolic. One such example was the writer's travelling companion for a considerable interval in Western Australia. While remaining packed conveniently away in a small box throughout the day, it was accustomed to enjoy the liberty of whatever apartment its owner occupied in the evening and throughout the night, returning of its own accord to its sleeping-box with the approach of dawn. On one exceptional occasion, however, Master Tiny, as this individual was named, was missing in the morning from his accustomed crib, and a prolonged search and examination of every
The Living Animals of the World
corner and article of furniture that could afford shelter failed to recover him. That the little creature was lost through some one having unwittingly left the door of the apartment open, permitting its escape, was the only and much-deplored conclusion that could be arrived at. Towards evening, however, there was a slight rustle close at hand, and Master Tiny was discovered emerging, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, from the top of one of the old-fashioned china dogs that decorated the hotel-room mantelpiece. The ornament, seemingly intact from the front, had the back of the head battered in. Through the resulting crevice the little animal had managed to squeeze itself, having come to the conclusion, doubtless, that this newly chosen retreat more nearly resembled the cavernous shelter of its native tree-spout than its accustomed artificially constructed box. This singular domicile Master Tiny was permitted to monopolise for the remainder of his sojourn at that hostelry. One of the favourite diversions of this little phalanger during the evenings was to climb up the curtain and cornice of the room he occupied, and thence hurl himself through the air with outspread parachute to the writer at the opposite end. The apartment, happening to be the commercial room of the hotel, some thirty feet in length, gave him good scope for exercising ishis characteristic flying leaps. The attitude invariably maintained during these flights aptly illustrated in the accompanying photograph; the body is never poised with the head inclined downwards, as is commonly depicted in artists' fancy sketches of the animal contained in popular natural histories. A friend of the writer's in Tasmania, who kept one of these flying-phalangers as a household pet, was accustomed to leave a crevice of the window open at night, so that the little fellow could go in and out as it liked. After the manner of most pets, however, a day arrived upon which its box was found vacant, a marauding cat or other disaster having apparently compassed its untimely end.