New Holland Mouse

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New Holland Mouse

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Genus:	Pseudomys
Species:	P. novaehollandiae

Binomial name

Pseudomys novaehollandiae
(Waterhouse, 1843)

The New Holland Mouse (Pseudomys novaehollandiae) is a species of rodent in the Muridae family. It was first described by George Waterhouse in 1843; it vanished from view for over a century before its rediscovery in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park north of Sydney, in 1967. It is found only in Australia, within the states of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.

[edit] Victorian Populations

The first living animals were recorded in the state of Victoria in 1970 on the Mornington Peninsula.^[1] The New Holland Mouse has since been discovered in Victoria at a number of near coastal locations, mostly to the east of Melbourne (Cranbourne, Langwarrin, Yanakie Isthmus, the south-western end of the Ninety Mile Beach and a number of sites near Loch Sport, Mullundung State Forest and Providence Ponds). A number of these populations are now though to be extinct.^[1]

One known population occurs to the west of Melbourne, in the eastern Otway Ranges near Anglesea. The Anglesea population, discovered in 1980, comprises a number of sub-populations which were intensively studied by Deakin University reserchers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Some of the Anglesea sub-populations went extinct after the 1983 Ash Wednesday wildfires.^[2] Others have persisted until at least the mid-1990s.^[3] The current status of the Angelsea sub-populations is uncertain, but they may be now locally extinct.

[edit] Conservation Status

The New Holland Mouse is not listed as a threatened species on the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.[1]

It is listed as threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. An Action Statement has also been prepared for the New Holland Mouse under this Act.^[4]

It is listed as endangered in Victoria on the Department of Sustainability and Environment 2003 Advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna.^[5]

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Menkhorst, P. (1995). Mammals of Victoria. Distribution, Ecology and Conservation.. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
^ Wilson, B. A. (1994). "The distribution of the New Holland Mouse Pseudomys novaehollandiae (Waterhouse 1843) in the Eastern Otways, Victoria". The Victorian Naturalist 112(2): 46–53.
^ Lock, M. L. and Wilson, B. A. (1996). "The distribution of the New Holland mouse (Pseudomys novaehollandiae) with respect to vegetation near Anglesea, Victoria.". Wildlife Research 26: 565–577. doi:10.1071/WR97050.
^ Seebeck, J. A., Menkhorst, P. W., Wilson, B. A. and Lowe, K.W. (1996). New Holland Mouse Pseudomys novaehollandiae. Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act Action Statement #74.. East Melbourne, Victoria: State of Victoria.
^ Department of Sustainability and Environment (2003). Advisory list of the threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria – 2003. Melbourne: State of Victoria.

Baillie, J. 1996. Pseudomys novaehollandiae. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 09 July 2007.
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.
Wilson, B. A. 1991, ‘The Ecology of Pseudomys novaehollandiae (Waterhouse, 1843) in the Eastern Otway Ranges, Victoria.’ Wildlife Research. 18:233-247.
Wilson, B. A., Bourne, A. R. and Jessop, R. E. 1986, ‘Ecology of Small Mammals in a Coastal Heathland at Anglesea, Victoria.’ Australian Wildlife Research. 13:397-406.