Australian Native Rodent Association

03/04/2025

28/02/2025

🌿 Meet the Pookila - a small, burrowing native rodent found only in southeastern Australia, including the site we manage at Dutson Downs!

According to Zoos Victoria there are fewer than 10,000 Pookila left in the wild. They're classified as extinct in seven out of 12 known Victorian locations. We're proud to be part of a breeding and reintroduction program to help protect these vulnerable populations 💚

Fast fact: the name 'Pookila' was adopted in 1995 to honour Indigenous culture. It's derived from a Ngarigo word for ‘mouse’.

28/02/2025

28/02/2025

How cute is this mouse-chievous little guy? 🐭

Often too small to identify in traditional surveys, the threatened native rodent was recently photographed across Wollemi National Park, after being attracted to a scent lure.

It’s all part of the the world-leading Ecological Health Scorecards program, which uses survey techniques like close-range cameras and acoustic monitoring to comprehensively measure the health of our national parks.

20/01/2025

Not rodents! But these yellow footed antechinus babies were almost euthanised as they were misidentified as invasive rattus rattus by wildlife carer! Thankfully they sought further advice from someone who was able to accurately ID them

Today we’re going to share a little story that shows how easy it is to confuse some of our small native critters with introduced rodents. A lovely lady, a wildlife carer herself, had found some very young rat-like babies in a nest in her car. Mum was gone and the nest was not accessible, so reuniting them was impossible.

Thinking they could be Melomys, a native rodent species, she contacted another carer nearby. After seeing that there were 6 pups (Melomys only have 4) it was suggested they were non-native Rattus rattus. Which would have meant they couldn’t have been released and should by law be humanely euthanised.

Luckily she contacted us to seek further advice.
After looking at the pictures it became clear that the little guys weren’t rodents at all but dasyurids, carnivorous marsupials. Yellow-footed antechinus, to be precise. They are now being raised and rehabilitated by an experienced carer near Tully.

If in the slightest doubt about the identity of little creatures - please ask an expert before making a decision about their future.

You can ask your questions in the Australian Mammal ID group on Facebook or just ring us. We are always more than happy to provide you with the correct ID and take care of the animals.

18/01/2025

18/01/2025

Prehensile tailed rat (Pogonomys mollipilosus) native to tropical rainforests of Queensland and New Guinea

Prehensile-tailed rat (Pogonomys mollipilosus)

30/10/2024

Australian plants have evolved in a multitude of ways to be pollinated, whether that's by insects, birds, the wind, water or by themselves.

Now scientists are discovering more grounded creatures — native and invasive rodents — play larger roles as pollinators than we realised.

And for some plants, such as certain banksia species, native rodents may be their primary pollinators.

THE STORY: https://ab.co/3UoXXrs

27/08/2024