What is a pademelon?

July 9, 2023 5:48 PM

Pademelons are hopping marsupials that are a bit smaller than most wallabies.
posted by Fiasco da Gama (15 comments total)

This looks almost entirely unrelated to cucamelons. I feel misled by the name.
posted by eviemath at 5:57 PM on July 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

the nicest night we've had all summer, I'm in a chair, looking at venus,so if I saw one of these in my pine tree, I would definitely freak out but they do have a sense of Grace I think.
posted by clavdivs at 6:34 PM on July 9, 2023

{glances at Liquor cabinet}
posted by clavdivs at 6:35 PM on July 9, 2023

There's one of these things at pretty much every size. I was camping in Queensland and was woken by a potoroo on my chest. I wasn't aware of the pademelon, but now I think they look like stretched out quokkas... on another note the naming situation down there really is delightful.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 7:02 PM on July 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

1) Clearly, from the photograph, the reason pademelons climb trees is that they are possessed! Probably by trees.

2) a contestant on a reality show tripping on one of these animals and killing it is an excellent reason to ban reality shows.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:10 PM on July 9, 2023

Listen. I'm no zoologist, but let's just say I had a very large book with a lot of pictures of all the different animals when I was a kid, and I looked at it a lot. I had these weird-ass animal trading-card things that were like the size of a coaster. I looked at those a lot, too. The cuscus was my favorite. So I speak with some authority when I say that Australia has just been fucking with us recently. Look at the front page of Metafilter over the past few weeks! Just bullshit made-up animal after bullshit made-up animal! "Yeah, snag a photo of a rat, cuten it up in Photoshop, and name it whatever syllables come out of your toddler. And tell 'em it's a marsupial. Nobody outside of Australia really knows what those are, so they'll buy it. Can't lose!" ... "Mate."

It's a bit suspicious it's all happening right as all this generative AI stuff is here. I don't have access to that version of Photoshop that you just tell what to do, but someone who does: give it a photo of a rat, and say "Make it super cute." I bet you get a bunch of these things... "Put a bird on it." Easy. Then the stoner kid is all "Yooo, let's make one look like a demon, though!" "Sure, whatever."
posted by whatnotever at 7:24 PM on July 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Apparently, all we are seeing are cute little fur babies from Austrailia lately, (except for the cassowaries).

Remember though, everything else there will kill you in a second. Feels like big Australia is cranking up their PR game.

And these are cute as fortold
posted by Windopaene at 7:44 PM on July 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I learnt about pademelons from the cartoonist First Dog on the moon’s battle with them (Guardian link).
posted by poxandplague at 8:34 PM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Very strange as a Tasmanian to hear a species I think of as a Normal Proper Animal being described as an AI fever dream. You want to know what's weird and exotic? Squirrels.
posted by rory at 1:57 AM on July 10, 2023 [11 favorites]

I just learned about these from a brief mention in Deadloch. The local football team called themselves the Pademelons to denote their ruthlessness - the claim was that pademelon mothers sacrifice their joeys by throwing them at predators in order to escape. (I can't find an article that backs that up.)
posted by yamel at 5:21 AM on July 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

A lot of wallabies will let their young fall out of their pouch if they are frightened by eg a dog and running away.

Source: many, many wildlife rehabilitation groups.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:59 AM on July 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

"Very strange as a Tasmanian to hear..."

Ahh, good call. Thanks for pointing that out, and I'm sorry.
posted by whatnotever at 7:16 AM on July 10, 2023

You want to know what's weird and exotic? Squirrels.

Australian currently visiting family in rural Illinois here. The weird animals I see here are WILD.

There’s a family of small dinosaurs (turkeys) that go wandering around the backyard several times a day pecking at the air and sometimes the ground. They have ballsacks hanging from their throats for some reason.

Then there are the hummingbirds, as if they’re even a real thing. They can hover in one place and then another place without going anywhere in between.

There are also fireflies, who just decide their arses should start glowing for funsies.

And yesterday I saw something that was clearly an otter with the aspect ratio set wrong. Apparently that’s a groundhog.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 8:26 AM on July 10, 2023 [12 favorites]

cute little fur babies from Austrailia […] everything else there will kill you in a second

cute fur babies are an instar that attracts prey for the adults

the classic argument over whether these are r- or K- reproductive strategy species is resolved: they change from low to high investment after this instar.
posted by clew at 9:56 AM on July 10, 2023

you had me at dropwallabies
posted by bartleby at 3:43 PM on July 10, 2023