Rediscovery of the Marsupial Echymipera rufescens in Australia

Abstract

THE marsupial faunas of both New Guinea and Australia indicate that there has been a continuing interchange between the two land masses with Cape York Peninsula as the main gateway into and out of Australia. Of the bandicoots (family Peramelidae) only two species occur in both Australia and New Guinea. The short-nosed bandicoot Isoodon macrourus Gould, common in eastern Australia and Arnhem Land, is found also in southern and south-eastern Papua and possibly migrated from Australia to this region¹. The spiny haired bandicoot, Echymipera rufescens Peters and Doria, is the only terrestrial marsupial found in the rainforests of Cape York Peninsula which is considered to be of New Guinean origin². This bandicoot is widespread in the forested foothills and lowlands of western New Guinea both north and south of the central mountain range as well as south-western Papua and the Kei and Aru islands³. In Australia it is known only by a single specimen caught in 1932 by P. J. Darlington. This animal was described by Tate¹ and given the status of a new subspecies Echymipera rufescens australis. In this paper¹ the type locality was given as “Rocky Scrub”, Rocky River, but later Tate² gave it as the upper Nesbit River. In spite of extensive efforts by the 1948 Archbold Expedition and later groups, no more E. r. australis were caught and the subspecies was considered to be extremely rare⁴.