White-footed Rabbit-rat
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| White-footed rabbit-rat | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Conilurus albipes (Lichtenstein, 1829) |
The White-footed Rabbit-rat (Conilurus albipes) is an extinct species of rodent, which was originally found in woodlands from Adelaide to Sydney, but became restricted to south-eastern Australia. It was kitten-sized and was one of Australia's largest native rodents. It was nocturnal and lived among trees. It made nests filled with leaves and possibly grass in the limbs of hollow eucalyptus trees. The mother carried her young attached to her teats. John Gould said that he removed a baby from a teat of its dead mother. The baby clung tightly to Gould's glove.
Sydney natives called it 'gnar-ruck'. It was a problem in the settlers' stores at about 1788. The last specimen was recorded at about 1845, but some were reported in 1856-57 and perhaps in the 1930s. Rats may have transmitted disease or competed directly with the white-footed rabbit rat. Cats may have been predators, while the demise of Aboriginal firestick farming, which maintained woodland, may have doomed the rabbit rat and its habitat.
[edit] References
- Baillie (1996). Conilurus albipes. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 10 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is listed as extinct
