DunnartsBy Kelsey Gamble 4/C

Contents: What is a Dunnart? Habitats and species Mmm….Lunch! Home Sweet Home Other Interesting facts Index

What is a Dunnart?

Many people think Dunnarts are mice, but that is not true. Dunnarts are Marsupials and belong only to Australia and Papua New Guinea. There are more than 12 types of Dunnart.

Here are some: Stripe Faced Dunnart, Red Cheeked Dunnart, Hairy Footed Dunnart, Lesser Hairy Footed Dunnart and the Fat Tailed Dunnart.

Habitats and species

Dunnarts can live almost anywhere in Australia, but the most likely place you can find them is Western and South Australia. They mostly like the dry, barren regions like a desert.

Dunnarts vary in lots of places, from the Julia Creek Dunnart (which dwells in burrows near lakes and creeks) to the Lesser Hairy Footed Dunnart which scuttles across 90km of sand dunes at night.

Mmm…Lunch!

Dunnarts are carnivores and are nocturnal which means they sleep at day and come out at night and Carnivores is when they eat meat. A Dunnarts main diet is spiders and insects.

They have a high water level content so they don’t have to drink much. Some Dunnarts such as the Fat-tailed Dunnart store fat in the base of their tail so they don’t need to eat much, either!

Home Sweet Home!

Dunnarts are very sneaky when it comes to homes! If they can’t manage to build their own home, they steal someone else’s !!!

Their burrow is a very small hole in the ground.

He’s snug, isn’t he!

Other interesting facts Dunnart during birth

Dunnarts were only discovered not very long ago.Not much at all is known of the life cycle of the Dunnart. We know that the gestation period only takes a minimum of 12 days.

We also know that when the baby is born it weighs around 1.5g and the mating season is from late winter to late summer.

Newborn Dunnart

INDEX

Contents What is a Dunnart? Habitats and

species Mmm…Lunch! Home Sweet Home Other Interesting

facts (The life Cycle)

OH NO, THE WILD CAT!!!