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The Heath Mouse (Pseudomys shortridgei) is one of the larger Pseudomyine rodents found in Australia with a body mass of 55-90g, head and body length of 90-120 mm and a tail length of 80-110 mm (Cockburn 2000). Its fur is grey brown dorsally, flecked with buff and black, with a distinctly paler belly. Dark guard hairs cover the upper portions of the body and give the heath mouse a fluffy appearance. The feet are brown but slightly paler than the body. Heath mice, superficially, are very similar to the bush rat (Rattus fuscipes) but they can be distinguished by the shape of the posthallucal pad on the pes (Cooper 1994).
The head of the heath mouse is characteristically blunt, with a roman nose and bulging eyes, which is a characteristic shared by the majority of the Pseudomys genus (Watts and Aslin 1981). Another common characteristic of Pseudomys, which is also the second morphological character that helps to distinguish the heath mouse from the bush rat is the haired tail with distinct bi-colouration (dark above – light beneath) (Cooper 1994). The tail is also shorter than the body length and non annulated (Wells 1991; Cockburn 2000).
[edit] References
- Cockburn, 2000.
- Cooper, 1994.
- Watts and Aslin, 1981.
- Wells, 1991.
