Australian Biological Resources Study

Australian Faunal Directory

Species Rattus tunneyi (Thomas, 1904)

Museums

Regional Maps

CAVS: 1401

Species Rattus tunneyi (Thomas, 1904)

Pale Field-rat

Generic Combinations

  • Rattus tunneyi (Thomas, 1904).

 

Introduction

No subspecies listed by Mahoney (1988: 188), just synonyms.

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia


Extra Distribution Information

Apparently extinct in SA and possibly in NSW.


Note that conversion of the original AFD map of states, drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones to IBRA and IMCRA regions may have produced errors. The new maps will be reviewed and corrected as updates occur. The maps may not indicate the entire distribution. See further details below.
IBRA and IMCRA regions (map not available)
drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones (map not available)

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, SA, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Kanmantoo (KAN), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Murchison (MUR), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Nullarbor (NUL), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

  • Australia
    • New South Wales: SE coastal
    • Northern Territory: Lake Eyre basin, N Gulf, N coastal
    • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
    • South Australia: Lake Eyre basin, S Gulfs, W plateau
    • Western Australia: N coastal, NW coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Burrower, coastal, folivore, granivore, open forest, subtropical, terrestrial, tussock grassland.

 

General References

Baverstock, P.R., Watts, C.H.S., Adams, M. & Cole, S.R. 1981. Genetical relationships among Australian rodents (Muridae). Australian Journal of Zoology 29: 289-303

Baverstock, P.R., Watts, C.H.S., Hogarth, J.T., Robinson, A.C. & Robinson, J.F. 1977. Chromosome evolution in Australian rodents II. The Rattus Group. Chromosoma (Berlin) 61: 227-241

Braithwaite, R.W. 1989. Shelter selection by a small mammal community in the wet-dry tropics of Australia. Australian Mammalogy 12: 55-59

Braithwaite, R.W. & Baverstock, P.R. 1995. Pale Field-rat Rattus tunneyi. pp. 662-664 in Strahan, R. (ed.). The Mammals of Australia: The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife. Sydney : Reed New Holland 756 pp.

Braithwaite, R.W. & Griffiths, A.D. 1996. The paradox of Rattus tunneyi: the endangerment of a native pest. Wildlife Research 23: 1-22

Braithwaite, R.W. & Muller, W.J. 1997. Rainfall, groundwater and refuges: predicting extinctions of Australian tropical mammal species. Australian Journal of Ecology 22: 57-67

Calver, M.C., King, D.R., Gardner, J.L. & Martin, G.R. 1991. Total food consumption of some native Australian small mammals in the laboratory. Australian Mammalogy 14: 139-141

Kitchener, D.J., Keller, L.E., Chapman, A., McKenzie, N.L., Start, A.N. & Kenneally, K.F. 1981. Observations on Mammals of the Mitchell Plateau area, Kimberley, Western Australia. pp. 123–169 in, Biological Survey of Mitchell Plateau and Admiralty Gulf, Kimberley, Western Australia. Papers resulting from a joint field expedition to Mitchell Plateau, Kimberley, by the Western Australia Museum, Perth, and the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, U.S.A., 1976–1977. 274 pp.

Mahoney, J.A. in Walton, D.W. (ed.) 1988. Zoological Catalogue of Australia Volume 5. Mammalia. Canberra : Australian Government Publishing Service x 274 pp. [Date published 13/Apr/1988] [188]

Morrissey, B.L. & Breed, W.G. 1982. Variation in external morphology of the glans penis of Australian native rodents. Australian Journal of Zoology 30: 495-502

Reddell, P., Spain, A.V. & Hopkins, M. 1997. Dispersal of spores of mycorrhizal fungi in scats of native mammals in tropical forests of northeastern Australia. Biotropica 29: 184-192

Taylor, J.M. & Horner, B.E. 1973. Reproductive characteristics of wild native Australian Rattus (Rodentia: Muridae). Australian Journal of Zoology 21: 437-475

Taylor, J.M. & Horner, B.E. 1973. Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 98. Systematics of native Australian Rattus (Rodentia, Muridae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 150: 1-130

Watts, C.H.S. 1982. The husbandry of Australian Rattus. pp. 177-179 in Evans, D.D. (ed.). The Management of Australian Mammals in Captivity. Proceedings of the Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society, Healesville, Victoria, February 1979. Melbourne : Zoological Board of Victoria 194 pp.

Watts, C.H.S. & Aslin, H.J. 1981. The Rodents of Australia. Sydney : Angus & Robertson xii 321 pp. 16 pls.

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
04-Feb-2023 10-Dec-2010 MOVED
12-Feb-2010 (import)