
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Laurance, W.F. 
T1  - Effects of weather on marsupial folivore activity in a north Queensland upland tropical rainforest.
JF  - Australian Mammalogy
JO  - Aust. Mammalogy
Y1  - 1990
VL  - 13
IS  - 1
SP  - 41
EP  - 47
KW  - 
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1071/AM90006 
N2  - There have been no prior attempts to assess the efTec ts of weather variation on folivorous marsupials in tropical Australia. I used data from 160 spotlighting censuses to test the effects of four weather variables (temperature, cloud cover, rainfall , fog) and moonlight intensity on activity patterns of five arboreal folivores in 1986/ 87 on the Atherton Tableland in northeastern Queensland. The most striking resuh was that three possums (Trichosurus vulpecula, Pseudocheirus herbertensis, Hemibelideus lemuroides) significantly reduced their activity when temperatures fell below 14-16&#xb0; C. Moreover, diminishing cloud cover and increasing moonlight, which may increase detectability of folivores to predators, appeared to reduce the activity of tropical ringtails (P. herbertensis, P. archeri, H. lemuroides). Lumhohz&apos;s Tree-kangaroos (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) seemed lillie influenced by inclement weather, at least over the range of conditions studied. Ecological and biogeographic implications of these findings are discussed. 
ER  -

