Long-tailed planigales feed on many invertebrates that are often close to their same size, including insect larvae, and small vertebrates such as Leggadina. They are aggressive predators, pouncing on and often biting their prey multiple times to kill it. They hunt at night and their main diet consists of grasshoppers and crickets. They have been observed eating only the meaty part of the insects, leaving the head and wings. Because of their flat head and small body shape, long-tailed planigales can easily reach into the hiding spots of their prey, which hide in the same cracked soil and leaf litter that the planigales do.
Animal Foods: mammals; reptiles; insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods
Primary Diet: carnivore (Eats terrestrial vertebrates, Insectivore , Eats non-insect arthropods)
Long-tailed planigales use their small stature and flat skull to their advantage, they conceal themselves in cracks in soil, leaf litter, and other small crevices to hide and escape from predators. The brownish color of their fur helps them blend in with their surroundings, making it harder for predators to spot them. Common predators are larger animals such as cane toads (Rhinella marina), domestic cats (Felis silvestris), and various types of snakes.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Long-tailed planigales are the smallest living marsupials. Long-tailed planigales weigh 4.2 to 4.3 grams and are 55 to 65 mm in length. Long-tailed planigales are mouse-like marsupials with flat heads and pointed muzzles. Their fur is grey-brown with yellow hues and their bellies are lighter in color. They have long bare tails which make up just under half of their total length. The central pads on their feet are smooth and not serrated. Their hind limbs are bigger than their front limbs, allowing them to lean back or stand in a semi-crouched position. There is no sexual dimorphism in long-tailed planigales.
Average mass: 4.3 g.
Range length: 55 to 65 mm.
Average length: 59 mm.
Average basal metabolic rate: 0.0650 cm3.O2/g/hr.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
Long-tailed planigales live for up to 1.3 years in the wild.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 1.3 years.
Long-tailed planigales live in a variety of habitats. They are commonly found in clay soil woodlands, black soil plains, and the grasslands of Australia’s "Top End", which are seasonally flooded during the monsoon from December to the end of March. The grasslands in that region develop dry, deep cracks in the soil during the eight-month dry season. Long-tailed planigales use these cracks to hide from predators and hunt for invertebrates and other small animals. They will also hide under tussocks of grass.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland ; forest
Planigale ingrami, long-tailed planigale, is found in northern Australia in the northeastern part of the Northern Territory, Mackay and Townsville in Queensland, and south to Brunette Downs.
Biogeographic Regions: australian (Native )
Long-tailed planigales may help to control populations of the small animals that they prey on.
Long-tailed planigales are important members of their native ecosystems.
There are no known negative affects of Planigale ingrami on humans.
There are three recognized sub-species: Planigale ingrami ingrami, Planigale ingrami brunnea, and Planigale ingrami subtilissima, little planigales.
Neither P. i. ingrami nor P. i. brunnea are endangered, but P. i. subtilissima are on the U.S. Federal list as endangered.
US Federal List: endangered
CITES: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Long-tailed planigales are likely to use chemical and auditory cues, like most mammals. However, there is little information on communication in planigales in the literature.
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Other common names for Planigale ingrami are northern planigales, Ingram's planigales, and flat-headed planigales.
Males and females have multiple mates.
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Little is known about reproduction in long-tailed planigales. They breed year round, but mostly during the wet season. Populations living in different parts of Australia typically give birth during different parts of the year. They give birth to 4 to 8 young per litter in the northern part of their range and up to 12 per litter in the southern part of their range. Young are nursed for up to 90 days, the first 6 weeks of which is spent in the mother's pouch. After weaning long-tailed planigales are independent.
Breeding interval: Breeding intervals in long-tailed planigales are unknown.
Breeding season: Long-tailed planigales living in the Northern Territories give birth December to March. Long-tailed planigales living in Queensland give birth in September.
Range number of offspring: 4 to 12.
Average weaning age: 90 days.
Average time to independence: 3 months.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; year-round breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous
Like all marsupials, Planigale ingrami give birth to underdeveloped young. The young spend six weeks in their mother's pouch, after which they spend six weeks hidden in in a grassy nest or under bark while their mother searches for food.
Parental Investment: pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female)
The long-tailed planigale (Planigale ingrami), also known as Ingram's planigale or the northern planigale, is the smallest of all marsupials, and one of the smallest of all mammals.[3] It is rarely seen but is a quite common inhabitant of the blacksoil plains, clay-soiled woodlands, and seasonally flooded grasslands of Australia's Top End.
The long-tailed planigale was described in 1906 by Oldfield Thomas, who placed it in the genus Phascogale. The species was moved in 1928 by Ellis Le Geyt Troughton, who created the genus Planigale for it and the other then-known species, the common planigale (P. maculata), and described the narrow-nosed planigale (P. tenuirostris). The species has since suffered some taxonomic confusion, having been referred to as Planigale subtilissima; there has also been some confusion concerning subspecies. Currently, three subspecies are recognised:[1]
The long-tailed planigale has an extraordinary head shape. All planigales have a flattened head, much broader than it is deep. This smallest planigale takes that trend to an extreme: at just 3 to 4 mm (0.12 to 0.16 in) from top to bottom, the skull is one-fifth as deep as it is wide. The purpose, it seems, is to allow it to squeeze into the tiniest of soil cracks; to find its prey, perhaps to avoid predators, or more probably for both reasons. The clays and blacksoils of the Top End typically develop deep cracks as they dry after the monsoonal summer rains, which persist right through the eight-month dry season until the wet begins again, usually producing floods that force small creatures like the Long-tailed Planigale to seek refuge on high ground.[1]
The head shape aside (which in any case is not obvious from all angles), the long-tailed planigale looks rather like a very small mouse with a long, bare tail. The muzzle is pointed, the fur a nondescript and variable brown, the hindlegs a little bigger than the forelegs, allowing it to stand semi-crouched on hindlegs and tail, rather like a tiny squirrel.[1]
Combined head-body length varies from 55 to 65 mm (2.2 to 2.6 in), averaging 59 mm (2.3 in) in both sexes; the tail length is similar. Average male weight is 4.2 g (0.15 oz), 4.3 g (0.15 oz) for females; a really large specimen can reach almost 6 g (0.21 oz).[1]
Like all members of the Dasyuromorphia, it is carnivorous, living on invertebrates and small vertebrates which they catch by energetic nocturnal hunting through leaf litter and in soil cracks.
By night it is an active and fearless hunter, preying mostly on insects and their larvae, small lizards, and young mammals almost as large as itself. With the larger prey like grasshoppers, an initial pounce is often insufficient and the planigale bites repeatedly until its prey no longer struggles. Usually, it eats only the soft parts, discarding the head and wings.[1]
Breeding can take place at any time of year, but mostly during the wet season. Four to eight young are born, sometimes as many as 12 in southern populations; the young spend six weeks in the backward-facing pouch, and then about another six weeks hidden in a grassy nest under bark or other vegetation while the mother forages each night.[1]
The long-tailed planigale prefers floodplains and savannah woodlands with cracked clay soils, as well as riparian areas and blacksoil plains. It is found across northern Australia from the Pilbara through the Great Sandy Desert and the Kimberley region in Western Australia to the Barkly Tableland in the Northern Territory and Townsville in Queensland.[4]
The long-tailed planigale (Planigale ingrami), also known as Ingram's planigale or the northern planigale, is the smallest of all marsupials, and one of the smallest of all mammals. It is rarely seen but is a quite common inhabitant of the blacksoil plains, clay-soiled woodlands, and seasonally flooded grasslands of Australia's Top End.
