Creator Gould's Mammals of Australia (1845-1863)

Date 1863

⁣⁣The red-tailed phascogale (Phascogale calura) is a threatened species, which was once widespread across central and western Australia, but now confined to a small area in the southwest Sporting a distinctive rusty-coloured tail with a long bushy tip, it skitters and leaps great distances through the tree tops of Wandoo eucalyptus and she-oak forests living on insects, spiders and even small birds. Females live for nearly 3 years, however, males typically expend themselves in less than a single year in a frenzy of mating and marsupial partying. Life may be short, but it is lived well!⁣

Source: Smithsonian Library