Alice Springs Mouse

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Alice Springs Mouse
Conservation status
Critically Endangered (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Rodentia Family: Muridae Genus: Pseudomys Species: P. fieldi
Binomial name
Pseudomys fieldi (Waite, 1896)
Synonyms
Pseudomys praeconis Thomas, 1910

The Alice Springs Mouse or Shark Bay Mouse (Pseudomys fieldi) is a species of rodent in the Muridae family. It is found only in Australia. It was once found throughout the western two thirds of Australia but it suffered greatly after the arrival of Europeans and feral animals. Its range was reduced to coastal sand dunes on Bernier Island, leaving it severely endangered. In 2003 the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) released some Shark Bay Mice onto Faure Island in the hope of creating another population. Despite the presence of owls the re-introduction was successful and the population quickly grew to a larger size than that of Bernier Island, no longer leaving the species on the brink of extinction.

Musser and Carleton (2005) argue that P. praeconis (Shark Bay Mouse) is not a distinct species from the critically endangered Alice Springs Mouse, P. fieldi.

[edit] References

• Baillie, J. 1996. Pseudomys fieldi. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 09 July 2007.
• Baillie, J. 1996. Pseudomys praeconis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 09 July 2007.
• Tim Flannery, Country: a continent, a scientist & a kangaroo, ISBN 1-920885-76-5
• Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. Pp. 894-1531 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.