Species Profile: Pygmy white-tailed rat

Hello again, welcome back to animals under threat. Today, we will be covering a rat species that is endemic to North Queensland and has become under the category of near threatened. Please welcome the Pygmy white-tailed rat (Uromys hadrourus).

The Pygmy white-tailed rat is a species of rat that belongs to the Muridae family and is less known than its sister species, the more common Giant white-tailed rat (Uromys caudimaculatus). Discovered at Thorntons Peak in 1973, little is known about this species apart from the brown colour fur back, white fur on its chest and hairless mosaic tail (Woinarski & Burbidge, 2016).

Picture by Mike Trennery.

As little is known about the preferred habitat of the Pygmy white-tailed rat, some scientists believe this species prefers rainforests with large ferns and vine trees (Moore, 2010). They are known to eat rainforest fruits and insects with their favourite insect been large beetles (Department of Environment and Science, 2017-2019).

Photo (right) by Mark Sanders and photo (left) by Nathan Litjens. 

The major threats to this species are deforestation and introduced predators and pests. Cane toads are a threat due to the Pygmy white-tailed rat competing for beetles and biting the toad causes the rat to become poisoned. Feral cats and dogs hunt Pygmy white-tailed rat for food and destroy possible nesting sites. Deforestation of needed plants that provide the food of the rat are been removed for urban and agriculture uses (wettropics, 1998).

Next time, we will be covering a species of giraffe that is under threat in Africa.

References

Moore, L.A. 2010, Niche differentiation, rarity, and commonness in the sympatric Australian white-tailed rats: Uromys caudimaculatus and Uromys hadrourus.

The State of Queensland (Department of Environment and Science) 2017–2019, https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/mount-lewis/culture.html retrieved on 29/05/19

https://www.wettropics.gov.au/rainforest_explorer/Resources/Documents/TropicalTopics/Rodents.pdf retrieved on 29/05/19 1998

Woinarski, J. & Burbidge, A.A. 2016. Uromys hadrourus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22802A22446971. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.20161.RLTS.T22802A22446971.en

Picture references

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/mount-lewis/culture.html

google images