My first sighting of one of these little critters was at night as it scuttled in behind the woodpile on the front verandah. I saw the long tail and thought it was a rat. It was way too big to be a mouse.
The next time I saw one it was climbing up the verandah post, clinging on and scaling the post with ease.
I was looking at a Yellow-footed Antechinus (Antechinus flavipes). These creatures were new to me, so I dug out a book to read more about them. This is what I found out.
The antechinus is a marsupial who loves to hunt around in trees and along the ground looking for food. They are carnivorous, eating insects, spiders, beetles and small grubs. Unlike their darker cousins, the yellow-footed antechinus is happy to roam day and night.
They hop along rather than scurry like mice, thanks to their splayed back legs. Their feet have a toe which operates like a thumb, letting them hang onto surfaces so they can easily climb.
The head is a greyish colour, and is long and pointed. The body is generally a lightish brown colour with pale to yellow fur on the legs and belly. They have a ring of lighter coloured fur around their eyes, like heavy eyeliner. The females have a small round pouch where they carry their babies.
These cute little things have a real reputation, though.
They have quite short lives of only 12 months but they make the most of them. Mating season is in August, and the males go at it until they drop. They die straight after the mating season (probably of exhaustion!). Most females die once they’ve weaned the babies which they’ve fed from teats in their pouch.
We live a few of these creatures at Shaggy Creek and they are quite happy now to cautiously scuttle around even while we are there. They have started to take the crumbs which the wrens have demanded of us, so it will be interesting to see who wins that battle.
In the meantime, we enjoy watching these critters cleaning up around the window edges and polishing off insects caught on the Landy lights. I think they are happy we moved here.