A total of 1487 observations of nine species of arboreal mammal, Acrobates pygmaeus, Phascolarctos
cinereus, Petauroides volans, Petaurus australis, P. breviceps, P. norfolcensis, Pseudocheirusperegrinus,
Trichosurus caninus and T. vulpecula, were made during surveys of the vertebrate fauna of northeastern
Victoria. Habitat use by each species was examined in relation to eight forest types that occur
along an environmental gradient ranging from sites at high elevation with a high annual rainfall, to
sites on the dry inland and riverine plains. Arboreal mammals were not evenly distributed between forest
types. Three species (P. australis, P. volans and T. caninus) were mainly associated with moist tall
forests; two species (P. norfolcensis and T. vulpecula) were primarily associated with drier forests and
woodlands of the foothills; the remaining three species (A. pygmaeus, P. breviceps and P. peregrinus)
occurred widely throughout the forests. The composition of the arboreal mammal assemblage changed
along the environmental gradient, but species displayed gradual changes in abundance with forest type
rather than marked discontinuities in distributional pattern. The highest overall frequencies of occurrence
of arboreal mammals were in forests typically dominated by a mixture of eucalypt species. The position
at first sighting of an animal, and the relative height in the forest stratum, were used to describe the
micro-habitats utilised. In general, the microhabitats occupied by each species are consistent with the
distribution of their known food resources.
Identification and genetic characterization of Toxoplasma gondii in free-ranging bristle-spined porcupine (Chaetomys subspinosus), a threatened arboreal mammal from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest
