Australian Biological Resources Study

Australian Faunal Directory

Species Rattus fuscipes (Waterhouse, 1839)

Museums

Regional Maps

CAVS: 1395

Species Rattus fuscipes (Waterhouse, 1839)

Bush Rat

Generic Combinations

  • Rattus fuscipes (Waterhouse, 1839).

 

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia


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

ACT, NSW, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gawler (GAW), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

  • Australia
    • Australian Capital Territory
    • New South Wales: SE coastal
    • Queensland: NE coastal
    • South Australia: Murray-Darling basin, S Gulfs, SE coastal
    • Victoria: SE coastal
    • Western Australia: SW coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Burrowing predator, closed forest, coastal, folivore, granivore, montane, open forest, open scrub, subtropical, tall open forest, terrestrial, woodland.

 

General References

Banks, P.B. 1998. Responses of Australian bush rats, Rattus fuscipes, to the odour of introduced Vulpes vulpes. Journal of Mammalogy 79: 1260-1264

Banks, P.B. 1999. Predation by introduced foxes on native bush rats in Australia: do foxes take the doomed surplus? Journal of Applied Ecology 36: 1063-1071

Banks, P.B. & Dickman, C.R. 2000. Effects of winter food supplementation on reproduction, body mass, and numbers of mammals in montane Australia. Canadian Journal of Zoology 78: 1775-1783

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

Breed, W.J. & Sarafis, V. 1979. On the phylogenetic significance of spermatozoal morphology and male reproductive tract anatomy in Australian rodents. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 103: 127-135

Carron, P.L., Happold, D.C.D. & Bubela, T.M. 1990. Diet of two sympatric Australian subalpine rodents, Mastacomys fuscus and Rattus fuscipes. Australian Wildlife Research 17: 479-489

Catling, P.C., Green, B. & Newgrain, K. 1989. The water fluxes of Rattus fuscipes and Antechinus stuartii before and after a prescribed fire. Australian Wildlife Research 16: 685-687

Cheal, D.C. 1987. The diets and dietary preferences of Rattus fuscipes and Rattus lutreolus at Walkerville in Victoria. Australian Wildlife Research 14: 35-44

Claridge, A.W. & May, T.W. 1994. Mycophagy among Australian mammals. Australian Journal of Ecology 19: 251-275

Cooper, N.K. 1994. Identification of Pseudomys albocinereus, P. occidentalis, P. shortridgei, Rattus rattus and R. fuscipes using footpad patterns. Western Australian Naturalist 19: 279-283

Cox, M.P., Dickman, C.R. & Hunter, J. 2003. Effects of rainforest fragmentation on non-flying mammals of the Eastern Dorrigo Plateau, Australia. Biological Conservation 115: 175-189

Dunstan, C.E. & Fox, B.J. 1996. The effects of fragmentation and disturbance of rainforest on ground-dwelling small mammals on the Robertson Plateau, New South Wales, Australia. Journal of Biogeography 23: 187-201

Fox, B.J. & Murray, J.D. 1979. Laboratory hybridization of Australian Rattus fuscipes and Rattus lutreolus and its karyotypic confirmation. Australian Journal of Zoology 27: 691-698

Goldingay, R.L. & Whelan, R.J. 1997. Powerline easements: Do they promote edge effects in eucalypt forest for small mammals? Wildlife Research 24: 737-744

Goosem, M, & Marsh, H. 1997. Fragmentation of a small-mammal community by a powerline corridor through tropical rainforest. Wildlife Research 24: 613-629

Heinsohn, G. & Heinsohn, R. 1999. Long-term dynamics of a rodent community in an Australian tropical rainforest. Wildlife Research 26: 187-198

Irby, D.C., Kerr, J.B., Risbridger, G.P. & de Kretser, D.M. 1984. Seasonally and experimentally induced changes in testicular function of the Australian bush rat (Rattus fuscipes). Journal of Reproduction and Fertility 70: 657-666

Lane, S.G. 1985. Seabird islands No. 147 Charley Island, Archipelago of the Recherche, Western Australia. Corella 8: 119-120 (presence recorded)

Laurance, S.G.W. & Laurance, W.F. 1995. A ground-trapping survey for small mammals in continuous forest and two isolated tropical rainforest reserves. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 38: 597-602

Laurence, W.F. 1994. Rainforest fragmentation and the structure of small mammal communities in tropical Queensland. Biological Conservation 69: 23-32

Lindenmayer, D.B., Cunningham, R.B., Donnelly, C.F., Triggs, B.A. & Belvedere, M. 1994. The conservation of arboreal marsupials in the montane ash forests of the central highlands of Victoria, south-eastern Australia V. Patterns of use and the microhabitat requirements of the mountain brushtail possum Trichosurus caninus Ogilby in retained linear habitats (wildlife corridors). Biological Conservation 68: 43-51

Lindenmayer, D.B., Cunningham, R.B. & Peakall, R. 2005. The recovery of populations of bush rat Rattus fuscipes in forest fragments following major population reduction. Journal of Applied Ecology 42: 649-658

Lunney, D. 1995. Bush Rat Rattus fuscipes. pp. 651-653 in Strahan, R. (ed.). The Mammals of Australia: The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife. Sydney : Reed New Holland 756 pp.

Lunney, D., Cullis, B. & Eby, P. 1987. Effects of logging and fire on small mammals in Mumbulla State Forest, near Bega, New South Wales. Australian Wildlife Research 14: 163-181

Lunney, D. & Ashby, E. 1987. Population changes in Sminthopsis leucopus (Gray) (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) and other small mammal species, in forest regenerating from logging and fire near Bega, New South Wales. Australian Wildlife Research 14: 275-284

Magnusson, W.E. 1985. Urine urea concentrations in Rattus fuscipes. Australian Mammalogy 8: 61-63

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

Peakall, R., Ruibal, M. & Lindenmayer, D.B. 2003. Spatial autocorrelation analysis offers new insights into gene flow in the Australian bush rat Rattus fuscipes. Evolution 57: 1182-1195

Penn, A,M., Sherwin, W.S., Lunney, D. & Banks, P. 2003. The effects of a low-intensity fire on small mammals and lizards in a logged, burnt forest. Wildlife Research 30: 477-486

Press, A.J. 1986. Comparison of numbers of Rattus fuscipes living in cool temperate rainforests and dry sclerophyll forests. Australian Wildlife Research 13: 419-426

Press, A.J. 1987. Comparison of the demography of populations of Rattus fuscipes living in cool temperate rainforests and dry sclerophyll forests. Australian Wildlife Research 14: 45-63

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

Robinson, A.C. 1987. The ecology of the bush rat Rattus fuscipes (Rodentia: Muridae), in Sherbrooke Forest, Victoria. Australian Mammalogy 11: 35-49

Schmitt, L.H. & White, R.J. 1979. A comparison of metric and protein variation in the Australian bush-rat, Rattus fuscipes greyii. Australian Journal of Zoology 27: 547-559

Smales, L.R. 1997. A review of the helminth parasites of Australian rodents. Australian Journal of Zoology 45: 505-521

Stewart, A.P. & Barnett, S.A. 1983. Seasonal changes in body weight and composition of Australian bush rats, Rattus fuscipes, and adaptation to winter. Australian Journal of Zoology 31: 29-37

Sutherland, E.F. & Dickman, C.R. 1999. Mechanisms of recovery after fire by rodents in the Australian environment, a review. Wildlife Research 26: 405-419

Taylor, J.M. & Calaby, J.H. 1988. Rattus fuscipes. Mammalian Species 298: 1-8

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

Thompson, M.B., Medlin, G., Hutchinson, R. & West, N. 1989. Short-term effects of fuel reduction burning on populations of small terrestrial mammals. Australian Wildlife Research 16: 117-129

Tory, M.K., May, T.W., Keane, P.J. & Bennett, A.F. 1997. Mycophagy in small mammals: A comparison of the occurrence and diversity of hypogeal fungi in the diet of the long-nosed potoroo Potorous tridactylus and the bush rat Rattus fuscipes from southwestern Victoria, Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology 22: 460-470

van Tets, I.G. & Whelan, R.J. 1997. Banksia pollen in the diet of Australian mammals. Ecography 20: 499-505

Warneke, R.M. 1971. A field study of the Australian bush rat, Rattus fuscipes (Waterhouse) (Rodentia, Muridae). Wildlife Contributions. Fisheries & Wildlife Department, Victoria 14: 1-115

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.

Williams, S.E. & Marsh, H. 1998. Changes in small mammal assemblage structure across a rain forest/open forest ecotone. Journal of Tropical Ecology 14: 187-198

Wood, D.H. 1971. The ecology of Rattus fuscipes and Melomys cervinipes (Rodentia: Muridae) in a south-east Queensland rain forest. Australian Journal of Zoology 19: 371-392

 

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
10-Dec-2010 10-Dec-2010 MODIFIED
12-Feb-2010 (import)