Little bunny rat
| Little bunny rat | ||||||||||||
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Little bunny rat (illustration by John Gould, 1863) |
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| Leporillus apicalis | ||||||||||||
| ( Gould , 1853) |
The lesser bunny rat ( Leporillus apicalis ) is a most likely extinct rodent species that was native to the arid regions of central Australia . Together with the endangered large bunny rat ( Leporillus conditor ) it forms the genus of the Australian bunny rats ( Leporillus ).
features
The Little Bunny-Rat was smaller and lighter than the Big Bunny-Rat . It reached a head-torso length of 170 to 200 mm, a tail length of 220 to 240 mm, a hind foot length of 41 to 44 mm, an ear length of 27 to 33 mm and a weight of about 150 g. The skull length was 44 to 43 mm and the skull width 20 to 21 mm. The molar teeth and the bullae were shorter than those of the Big Bunny Rat. Compared to the body size, however, the tail of the Little Bunny Rat was slightly longer. Another distinguishing feature was a white tuft of hair on the tip of the tail. The back fur color was light gray-brown and the peritoneum color was pure white.
Distribution area, habitat and way of life
Information on social behavior is only known from contemporary descriptions by the natural scientist Gerard Krefft . Krefft wrote in 1866:
“The pretty little animal is nocturnal and sociable in its behavior. I would often take eight to ten of them out of a hollow log and tame them so that they could be kept in camp. During tea time, they climbed onto the dining tables to get their share of sugar and bush bread. I think it's the same social animal that Burke and Wills complained about and that they surely named Rat Point after. "
Krefft also suspected that the stick nests, which were either uninhabited or in which the little bunny-rat had settled, were built by the big bunny-rat. This post caused some uncertainty about whether the little bunny-rat builds stick nests on its own. However, with regard to the range, this question can be considered resolved. The little bunny rat inhabited a wide area in central Australia up to about 26 degrees latitude. The southeastern part of its former range extended much further south and overlapped with the upper edge of the range of the Great Bunny Rat along the Murray River , where Krefft made his observations.
The discovery of numerous stick nests (large, hilly nests made of brushwood, branches, stones, grass, and vegetation) in caves and overhangs throughout central Australia, particularly in the Gibson Desert , confirms that the lesser bunny-rat built stick nests itself. A large nest discovered at De Rose Hill Station in South Australia was 3 meters long, 2 meters wide and one meter high.
The little bunny rat apparently ate a vegetable diet. Pebbles of feces collected from old nests in South Australia consisted almost entirely of vegetable matter, especially the fleshy leaves of the perennial shrub Sclerolaena eriacantha .
Krefft also ate these animals and noticed
"The meat is white and has an excellent taste."
status
The IUCN lists the lesser stick-nest rat since 2016 in the category "extinct" ( extinct ). The first specimens of the little bunny rat were collected by John Gould in South Australia in the early 1850s or just before that . Krefft stated that the species was common in the Murray River and Darling River plains until 1864, and that 96 specimens are listed in the catalog of the Blandowski Expedition from 1856 to 1857. The discoverer Charles Sturt but did not mention this type in his expedition report to the interior of New South Wales between 1844 and 1846. The first reports on the lesser stick-nest rat as a central Australian Art came from researchers Ernest Giles , of 1872 to 1873 in the northwestern MacDonnell Ranges their Saw nests. These huge nests occurred in the dense mulga bushland . Giles also sighted other nests between the Ayers and the Cavanagh Ranges, which stretch as far as Western Australia. The subsequent collection of two specimens of the little bunny-rat near Alice Springs in 1898 suggests that the nests that Giles observed belonged to this species. The next and last sighting of live animals was in July 1933 when stock nests were set on fire west of Mount Crombie south of the Musgrave Ranges in northwest South Australia . Two fleeing females were saved from the flames. The anthropologist Norman Tindale recorded this event in his black and white documentary Mann Ranges 1933 . Tindale noted in his diary:
“Left the camp at 2:30 pm. I saw several of these hill building rat nests. The locals set each of them on fire and saved two rats. I captured the hunt in a film. "
These two specimens are now in the South Australian Museum, stuffed . They can be seen briefly in Tindale's film. They are held up by the native trappers who set the stick nests on fire and chased their inhabitants through the bush.
literature
- Peter Menkhorst: A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia. Illustrated by Frank Knight. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne et al. 2001, ISBN 0-19-550870-X , p. 208.
- Ronald Strahan & Steve van Dyck (Eds.): The Mammals of Australia. 3rd Revised edition. New Holland Publishers, 2008, ISBN 978-1877069253 , pp. 585-586.
- Guy G. Musser , Michael D. Carleton : Muroidea. In: Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. Volume 2. 3rd edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 , pp. 1349-1350.
- Christopher HS Watts, Heather J. Aslin: The Rodents of Australia. Angus & Robertson, London 1981, ISBN 0-207-14235-1 . Pp. 151-154
- Andrew Burbidge , John Woinarski , Peter Harrison: The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 CSIRO Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-064-310-873-8 , pp. 581-582
- Chris Pavey: Threatened Species of the Northern Territory: Lesser stick-nest rat Leporillus apicallis Threatened Species Information Sheet. Northern Territory Government, 2006. (PDF)
- Tim Flannery, Peter Schouten: A Gap in Nature . Atlantic Monthly Press, New York 2001, ISBN 0871137976 . P. 139
Web links
- Leporillus apicalis inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015.2. Listed by: Robinson, T. & Burbidge, A., 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
- Edge of Existence - Lesser stick-nest rat
- Species Profile and Threats Database - Leporillus apicalis - Lesser Stick-nest Rat, Djooyalpi, White-tailed Stick-nest Rat
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Gerard Krefft: On the vertebrate animals of the lower Murray and Darling, their habits, economy, and geographical distribution. Transactions of the Philosophical Society of New South Wales, 1862-65, 1866: p. 1-33.
- ↑ Quoted in Tim Flannery, Peter Schouten: A Gap in Nature . Atlantic Monthly Press, New York 2001, ISBN 0871137976 . P. 139