Feisty marsupials can live short but fast lives. And they depend on strong, well-connected habitats.
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The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority is highlighting the importance of tree hollows for wildlife in its 2025 Year of the Tree Hollow community awareness campaign.
This month features one of the Goulburn Broken catchment’s carnivorous marsupials, the feisty brush-tailed phascogale (Phascogale tapoatafa).
GBCMA project officer Janice Mentiplay-Smith, said the brush-tailed phascogale was nocturnal and primarily arboreal, meaning it relies on healthy, connected forests and woodlands so it can travel through the treetops to search for nectar, insects, spiders, centipedes and bird eggs.
“As a hollow-dependent species, the brush-tailed phascogale will use several tree hollows in which to nest and shelter during the day, demonstrating how important tree hollow habitat is in our environment,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith said.
“The use of several hollows by the one animal is possibly a predator evasion tactic but means the demand for nest hollows is further exacerbated.
“Fortunately, where natural hollows no longer exist, the brush-tailed phascogale readily uses artificial nest boxes, however nest boxes should not be seen as a solution to the tree hollow problem. Preserving large old trees and standing dead trees is the first priority.”
Ms Mentiplay-Smith said this important habitat was often removed for firewood, spelling disaster for the animals that rely on it for shelter and protection from predators. It’s therefore important that firewood collection is undertaken at designated areas to ensure valuable habitat is not degraded or destroyed.
“The brush-tailed phascogale leads a short, fast life. After mating in late autumn to early winter, the male perishes. As he is around just one-year-old, this makes the brush-tailed phascogale the largest known mammal to die after its first and last breeding season,” she said.
“The female raises her five to eight young from mid-June to early August, firstly within their pouch — a fold of skin on her belly rather than a true pouch — for seven weeks and then within the nest until the joeys are five months old. A female will sometimes raise two litters in her lifetime. She typically dies before turning two.”
Read more about the brush-tailed phascogale and other mammal species of the Goulburn Broken catchment in The Mammal Book, a 58-page booklet featuring photos and informative text.
A phascogale in a nesting box. Photo: Orlando Talarno.
The Year of the Tree Hollow is supported by the Victorian Government through the Our Catchments, Our Communities stewardship program.
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