Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

South­ern mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops) in­habit cen­tral Aus­tralian deserts along the bor­ders of South Aus­tralia, West Aus­tralia, and North­ern Ter­ri­tory. ("South­ern Mar­su­pial Mole- It­jar­it­jari", 2006; Nowak, 1999)

• Biogeographic Regions
• australian
  • native

Habi­tat

Pre­cise habi­tat pref­er­ences of south­ern mar­su­pial moles is not well de­fined, as most records and sight­ings are scat­tered or based on sec­ond-hand Abo­rig­i­nal ac­counts. They in­habit tem­per­ate deserts and are most com­monly found bur­row­ing in sandy dunes that have dense veg­e­ta­tion. These an­i­mals seek out habi­tats with abun­dant shrubs and grasses, in­clud­ing sandy plains and old river flats. They pre­fer areas of soft sand and are un­able to cross hard-packed sand or loamy soil. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; "South­ern Mar­su­pial Mole- It­jar­it­jari", 2006; Cor­bett, 1975; John­son and Wal­ton, 1989)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

South­ern mar­su­pial moles range from 13 to 15.5 cm in total length, with masses rang­ing from 30 to 60 g. Their short tail ranges from 2 to 2.5 cm in length. Sex­ual di­mor­phism has not been re­ported in this species. Their fur grows in bunches and is silky and short. Fur color varies re­gion­ally across their ge­o­graphic range from creamy white to red­dish brown, per­haps be­cause the fur picks up col­ors from the soil in which the an­i­mals bur­row. ("South­ern Mar­su­pial Mole- It­jar­it­jari", 2006; Ben­shemesh and John­son, 2003; John­son and Wal­ton, 1989; Mac­don­ald, 2009; Stra­han, 1995)

No­to­ryctes ty­phlops lacks eyes and an optic nerve; only small black ves­ti­gial buds be­neath the sur­face of the skin re­main of the eyes. No ex­ter­nal ears or ear pin­nae exist and each ex­ter­nal au­di­tory mea­tus con­sists of a small hole sur­rounded by a dense cov­er­ing of fur. Nos­trils are re­duced to tiny ver­ti­cal slits and are lo­cated di­rectly below the horny, ker­ati­nous shield that over­lies the ros­trum. Limbs are short with dig­its three and four hav­ing large, flat­tened, shovel-like claws. Both males and fe­males have a back­wards fac­ing pouch, and that of fe­males is bet­ter de­vel­oped and con­tains two nip­ples. Den­tal for­mu­las ap­pear to vary among in­di­vid­u­als as Mac­Don­ald (2009) lists the den­tal for­mula as I4/3, C1/1, P2/3, M4/4=44, whereas Ben­shemesh and John­son (2003) re­port a den­tal for­mula of I4/4, C1/1, P3/3, M4/4=48. Their teeth are poorly rooted with in­cisors, ca­nines and pre­mo­lars being blunt. Upper mo­lars are more de­vel­oped and za­lamb­dodont. (Ben­shemesh and John­son, 2003; Howe, 1975; John­son and Wal­ton, 1989; Mac­don­ald, 2009)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  30 to 60 g

  1.06 to 2.11 oz

• Range length

  13 to 14.5 cm

  5.12 to 5.71 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is no in­for­ma­tion avail­able re­gard­ing the mat­ing sys­tem of south­ern mar­su­pial moles.

Very lit­tle is known about re­pro­duc­tion in No­to­ryctes ty­phlops, as there have been no ob­ser­va­tions of re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­ior made in the field or in cap­tiv­ity. Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple claim to have never seen N. ty­phlops young and do not know any in­for­ma­tion about the re­pro­duc­tion of this species. Ges­ta­tion, wean­ing, and age of ma­tu­rity are un­known. Based on sev­eral preg­nant fe­male spec­i­mens, breed­ing sea­son may take place in No­vem­ber. The num­ber of young pro­duced is not well known; how­ever, there are ex­am­ples of spec­i­mens with one or two young in their pouch. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; Fuller, 1988; John­son and Wal­ton, 1989; Ster­ling, 1891)

• Key Reproductive Features
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  The breeding interval is not known.

• Breeding season

  Precise breeding season is unknown, however, pregnant females have been found in November.

• Average number of offspring

  2

There is no in­for­ma­tion avail­able re­gard­ing parental care in No­to­ryctes ty­phlops.

• Parental Investment
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Very lit­tle in known about the lifes­pan of No­to­ryctes ty­phlops in the wild. Based on two records of south­ern mar­su­pial moles kept in cap­tiv­ity, 1 an­i­mal sur­vived for 10 weeks and the other for ap­prox­i­mately 1 month. Both spec­i­mens may have died due to ex­po­sure to cold tem­per­a­tures. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; Ster­ling, 1891)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  2.5 (high) months

Be­hav­ior

Few ob­ser­va­tions of No­to­ryctes ty­phlops have been made in its nat­ural en­vi­ron­ment and lit­tle is known of its gen­eral be­hav­ior. It is pri­mar­ily fos­so­r­ial. When cre­at­ing new bur­rows, No­to­ryctes ty­phlops be­gins dig­gin with its forefeet, and once un­der­ground it uses its hind limbs and tail as shov­els to push ex­ca­vated sand be­hind it­self. Bur­rows often lie 20 to 100 cm below the sur­face; how­ever, some are found at depths of more than 2 m. These hor­i­zon­tal tun­nels are con­stantly back­filled, and per­ma­nent bur­rows have been ob­served. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; Ben­shemesh and John­son, 2003; Stra­han, 1995)

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple state that No­to­ryctes ty­phlops is most often seen above ground after rains or dur­ing the windy sea­son. When above ground, they move with ur­gency, slowly trav­el­ing only a few me­ters be­fore re­turn­ing un­der­ground. When trav­el­ing above ground they drag their feet and tail, leav­ing con­spic­u­ous trails in the sand, es­pe­cially after a rain. In cap­tiv­ity, N. ty­phlops often scur­ries above ground, stop­ping sud­denly to change di­rec­tions or to begin bur­row­ing. No­to­ryctes ty­phlops sleeps in tem­po­rary un­der­ground cav­i­ties and oc­ca­sion­ally above ground after feed­ing. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; Ben­shemesh and John­son, 2003; Howe, 1975; Stra­han, 1995)

There is no in­for­ma­tion avail­able re­gard­ing the so­cial be­hav­ior of No­to­ryctes ty­phlops. It has been sug­gested that they are soli­tary as no per­ma­nent bur­rows are formed, elim­i­nat­ing means for con­tact be­tween in­di­vid­u­als. Above ground ob­ser­va­tions also do not in­di­cate any so­cial con­tact be­tween in­di­vid­u­als. Con­fu­sion per­sists as to when N. ty­phlops is most ac­tive, as No­to­ryctes is clas­si­fied as both noc­tur­nal and di­ur­nal in the pri­mary lit­er­a­ture. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; Ben­shemesh and John­son, 2003; Nowak, 1999)

• Key Behaviors
• fossorial
• motile
• solitary

Home Range

There is no in­for­ma­tion avail­able re­gard­ing the home range of No­to­ryctes ty­phlops.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Very lit­tle is known about com­mu­ni­ca­tion in south­ern mar­su­pial moles. In cap­tiv­ity, they have been ob­served mak­ing sharp squeak­ing sounds when held or when feed­ing was in­ter­rupted. Their brain is con­sid­ered to be ex­tremely sim­ple and prim­i­tive, how­ever, their ol­fac­tory bulbs are large and well de­vel­oped, sug­gest­ing that com­mu­ni­ca­tion and per­cep­tion are pri­mar­ily through ol­fac­tion. (Ben­shemesh and John­son, 2003; Howe, 1975; John­son and Wal­ton, 1989)

• Communication Channels
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

No­to­ryctes ty­phlops is an in­sec­ti­vore. Based on gut con­tents, pre­ferred for­age con­sists of ants and ant eggs from the genus Iridomyrmex and the sub­fam­ily Myrmeci­inae. Ants be­long­ing to Rhyti­do­pon­era and Cam­pono­tus are also con­sumed. Ter­mites, bur­row­ing sawfly lar­vae, and sev­eral species of ne­ma­tode are oc­ca­sion­ally found in the gut con­tents of N. ty­phlops along with small rep­tiles and seeds. It has been sug­gested that seeds are only con­sumed as a re­sult of feed­ing in un­der­ground ant nests. In cap­tiv­ity, eggs, earth­worms, ant pupae, fly lar­vae, and bee­tle lar­vae have been used with lim­ited suc­cess to feed these an­i­mals. (Ben­shemesh and John­son, 2003; Cor­bett, 1975; Fuller, 1988; Howe, 1975; Mac­don­ald, 2009; Winkel and Humphrey-Smith, 1988)

South­ern mar­su­pial moles are not well adapted for feed­ing on larger prey items, which are dif­fi­cult for them to ma­nip­u­late with their shovel-like claws. Small lar­vae are held down with the fore­limbs, and some prey items are squeezed with the fore­limbs be­fore being eaten, pre­sum­ably to make them softer. Larger prey are ei­ther lapped up or not con­sumed. Above-ground feed­ing has been ob­served, how­ever, prey is often taken un­der­ground to be eaten. (Ben­shemesh and John­son, 2003; Cor­bett, 1975; Howe, 1975)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• reptiles
• insects

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts

Pre­da­tion

No di­rect ob­ser­va­tions of pre­da­tion on No­to­ryctes ty­phlops have been made. N. ty­phlops re­mains have been found in fecal pel­lets of feral cats, din­goes, and the in­tro­duced red fox. Its fos­so­r­ial lifestyle likely helps them sig­nif­i­cantly re­duce risk of pre­da­tion. When on the sur­face, N. ty­phlops are par­tic­u­larly sus­cep­ti­ble to pre­da­tion by birds and snakes. The abil­ity to ab­sorb var­i­ous col­ors in the soil in which they bur­row likely helps cam­ou­flage them from po­ten­tial preda­tors when above ground. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; Ben­shemesh and John­son, 2003; Pal­tridge, 1998)

• Known Predators

  • red fox, Vulpes vulpes
  • dingos, Canis lupus dingo
  • cats, Felis catus
  • birds, Aves
  • snakes, Serpentes

Ecosys­tem Roles

South­ern mar­su­pial moles are in­sec­ti­vores and may help con­trol in­sect pest pop­u­la­tions. They also aer­ate the soil adn in­crease water pen­e­tra­tion by bur­row­ing. It is un­likely that they are a sig­nif­i­cant prey item for other species as their re­mains have been found in only a small per­cent­age of preda­tor scat. South­ern mar­su­pial moles are host to ne­ma­tode par­a­sites in the su­per­fam­ily Tri­chostrongy­loidea. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; John­son and Wal­ton, 1989; Pal­tridge, 1998)

• Ecosystem Impact
• soil aeration

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

No­to­ryctes ty­phlops is rarely used as a source of food by abo­rig­i­nals. His­tor­i­cally pelts were traded and sold for a sig­nif­i­cant amount of money, how­ever, this rarely oc­curs today. No­to­ryctes ty­phlops is pri­mar­ily found in areas where few hu­mans are pre­sent, thus their po­ten­tial im­por­tance to hu­mans is lim­ited. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; "South­ern Mar­su­pial Mole (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops)", 2009; Fuller, 1988; John­son and Wal­ton, 1989)

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse af­fects of No­to­ryctes ty­phlops on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The ICUN Red List of Threat­ened Species clas­si­fies No­to­ryctes ty­phlops as data de­fi­cient; how­ever, the Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment lists it as en­dan­gered. No­to­ryctes ty­phlops faces many threats in­clud­ing in­creased pre­da­tion by the red fox as well as other hu­man-in­duced fac­tors. Changed fire reg­i­mens and in­creased cat­tle farm­ing cause de­clines in na­tive plant pop­u­la­tions, lead­ing to re­duced in­ver­te­brate pop­u­la­tions. This lim­its the amount of food avail­able for N. ty­phlops. The in­creas­ing pres­ence of roads and rail­ways is be­lieved to limit the dis­per­sal of south­ern mar­su­pial moles. Con­ser­va­tion re­search has been on­go­ing since 1999 and aims to col­lab­o­rate with abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple and bi­ol­o­gists to focus on gain­ing a bet­ter un­der­stand­ing of the ecol­ogy of this species. ("Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010", 2004; "South­ern Mar­su­pial Mole (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops)", 2009; Dick­man, et al., 2010)

• IUCN Red List

  Data Deficient
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Data Deficient
  More information

Con­trib­u­tors

Paul Glyshaw (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, John Berini (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

North­ern Ter­ri­tory De­part­ment of In­fra­struc­ture, Plan­ning and En­vi­ron­ment. Na­tional re­cov­ery plan for mar­su­pial moles (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops and N. cau­r­i­nus), 2005–2010. Alice Springs NT, Aus­tralia: Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment. 2004. Ac­cessed March 13, 2011 at http://​www.​environment.​gov.​au/​biodiversity/​threatened/​publications/​pubs/​marsupial-moles.​pdf.

2009. "South­ern Mar­su­pial Mole (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops)" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 14, 2011 at http://​www.​environment.​gov.​au/​biodiversity/​threatened/​publications/​south-mole.​html.

North­ern Ter­ri­tory Gov­ern­ment De­part­ment of Nat­u­ran Re­sources, En­vi­ron­ment and the Arts. South­ern Mar­su­pial Mole- It­jar­it­jari. Aus­tralia: Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment. 2006. Ac­cessed March 31, 2011 at http://​www.​nt.​gov.​au/​nreta/​wildlife/​animals/​threatened/​pdf/​mammals/​southern_​marsupial_​mole_​vu.​pdf.

Ben­shemesh, J., K. John­son. 2003. Bi­ol­ogy and con­ser­va­tion of mar­su­pial moles (no­to­ryctes). Pp. 464-474 in M Jones, C Dick­man, M Archer, eds. Preda­tors with pouches : the bi­ol­ogy of car­niv­o­rous mar­su­pi­als. Colling­wood, VIC: CSIRO Pub­lish­ing.

Cor­bett, L. 1975. Ge­o­graph­i­cal dis­tri­b­u­tion and habi­tat of the Mar­su­pial Mole, No­to­ryctes ty­phlops. Aus­tralian Mam­mal­ogy, 1: 375-378.

Dick­man, C., A. Bur­bidge, K. Aplin, J. Ben­shemesh. 2010. "No­to­ryctes ty­phlops" (On-line). IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed March 31, 2011 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​apps/​redlist/​details/​14879/​0.

Fuller, P. 1988. Abo­rig­i­nal knowl­edge of the mam­mals of the cen­teral deserts of Aus­tralia. Aus­tralian Wildlife Re­search, 15/1: 9 -39.

Howe, D. 1975. Ob­ser­va­tions on a cap­tive mar­su­pial mole, No­to­ryctes ty­phlops. Aus­tralian Mam­mal­ogy, 1/4: 361-365.

John­son, K., D. Wal­ton. 1989. Fauna of Aus­tralia Vol­ume 1B. Aus­tralia: AGPS Can­berra. Ac­cessed March 31, 2011 at http://​www.​environment.​gov.​au/​biodiversity/​abrs/​publications/​fauna-of-australia/​pubs/​volume1b/​23-ind.​pdf.

Mac­don­ald, D. 2009. The en­cy­clo­pe­dia of mam­mals. Ox­ford: Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's mam­mals of the world. Bal­ti­more: Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Pal­tridge, R. 1998. Oc­cur­rence of mar­su­pial mole (No­to­ryctes ty­phlops) re­mains in the fae­cal pel­lets of cats, foxes and din­goes in the Tanami Desert. Aus­tralian Mam­mal­ogy, 20: 427-429.

Pear­son, D., J. Turner. 2000. Mar­su­pial mole pops up in the Great Vic­to­ria and Gib­son deserts. Aus­tralian Mam­mal­ogy, 22: 115-119.

Ster­ling, E. 1891. Fur­ther notes on the habits and anatomy of No­to­ryctes ty­phlops. Trans­ac­tions of the Royal So­ci­ety of South Aus­tralia, 14: 283–291. Ac­cessed March 31, 2011 at http://​www.​samuseum.​sa.​gov.​au/​Journals/​TRSSA/​TRSSA_​V014/​TRSSA_​V014_​p283p991.​pdf.

Stra­han, R. 1995. The mam­mals of Aus­tralia. Chatswood, N.S.W: Reed Books.

West­er­man, M. 1991. Phy­lo­ge­netic Re­la­tion­ships of the Mar­su­pial Mole, No­to­ryctes ty­phlops (Mar­su­pi­alia: No­to­ryc­ti­dae). Aus­tralian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 39/5: 529-537.

Winkel, K., I. Humphrey-Smith. 1988. Diet of the mar­su­pial mole, No­to­ryctes ty­phlops (Stir­ling 1889) (Mar­su­pi­alia: No­to­ryc­ti­dae). Aus­tralian Mam­mal­ogy, 11: 159-161. Ac­cessed March 14, 2011 at http://​books.​google.​com/​books?​id=WI3v4E_​Xb-AC&​pg=PA159&​lpg=PA159&​dq=%22Diet+of+the+Marsupial+Mole,+No­to­ryctes+ty­phlops+%28­Stir­ling+1889%29+%28­Mar­su­pi­alia:+No­to­ryc­ti­dae%29&source=bl&ots=6N6nLFLhV-&sig=Ju0T9ZX­px­QMqc­CGlMwLt­tUSKCHw&hl=en&ei=nZ19Te­HfLqrk0gHG4rzyAw&sa=X&oi=book_re­sult&ct=re­sult&resnum=5&ved=0CD­kQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22Diet%20of%20the%20­Mar­su­pial%20­Mole%2C%20No­to­ryctes%20­ty­phlops%20%28­Stir­ling%201889%29%20%28­Mar­su­pi­alia%3A%20No­to­ryc­ti­dae%29&f=false.