Hypsiprymnodon moschatus
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The musky rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus) is a small marsupial found only in the rainforests of northeastern Australia. First described in the later 19th century, the only other species are known from fossil specimens. They are similar in appearance to potoroos and bettongs, but are not as closely related. Their omnivorous diet is known to include materials such as fruit and fungi, as well as small animals such as insects and other invertebrates.
The description of this species, assigned to a new genus Hypsiprymnodon, was published in 1876 by Edward Pierson Ramsay, a curator at the Australian Museum. The syntypes are part of the museum's collection, mounted specimens of a male and female collected at Rockingham Bay, Queensland. Ramsay's specimens were obtained during European settlement of northeastern Australia on an expedition toward the Herbert River. A description of the species was provided by Richard Owen in the year after Ramsay's publication, the name Pleopus nudicaudatus, describing the five toes of the hind foot and its scaly, naked tail, is now regarded as a synonym. Ramsay had provisionally assigned the species to the genus Hypsiprymnus, but in his... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Musky Rat-kangaroo sighting in Daintree National Park on a given day, based on 15 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 10th most-seen of the 19 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Musky Rat-kangaroo in Daintree National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April and October, the lowest months. That is one of Daintree National Park's wettest months, with about 330 mm of rain against 50 mm in September.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Musky Rat-kangaroo sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Daintree National Park, in our data
Daintree National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Musky Rat-kangaroo sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Diprotodontia
The closest relatives of the Musky Rat-kangaroo that you can see in Daintree National Park (order Diprotodontia, Kangaroos, Possums, Wombats, and Allies) are Striped Possum (about 30%), Red-legged Pademelon (about 20%) and Bennett's Tree-kangaroo (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Musky Rat-kangaroo is recorded against all the mammals logged in Daintree National Park (15 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
