SMOKY MOUSE (PSEUDOMYS FUMEUS)Status: Vulnerable (IUCN); Critically Endangered in NSW.
Population data is lacking but the species appears to be
declining across its range, including the two largest known
populations at Mt William in western Victoria and Nullica
in south-eastern NSW. Targeted searches have been carried
out in adjacent regions, but there have been no records in
Namadgi National Park since 1994, and none in the East
Gippsland lowlands since 1990.
Appearance: Often ruffled looking, 180–250 mm
long, blue-grey to black furred rodent with a grey to
white underside and long, slender tail. Feet and ears are
pink, the latter with sparse white hairs. Darker hairs may
ring the eye. Adults weigh 25–86 g.
Diet: Subterranean fungi, flowers, seeds, berries and
invertebrates. Diet likely differs with season.
Habitat: Known to occupy a range of environments,
including subalpine heathlands and woodlands, dry
sclerophyll forests, and coastal woodlands and heath.
May prefer sites with a patch-mosaic fire regime
of 15–40 year intervals.
Lifestyle: Terrestrial, nocturnal burrowers, they are also
ephemeral, vanishing from sites they formerly visited. A
single male forms a family group with up to five females.
Threats: Predation by cats, dingoes, foxes, quolls and
pythons. Fire. Habitat degradation and fragmentation.
Dieback of related flora within its environment associated
with Phytophthora cinnamomi (root rot).
Conservation efforts: Predator control, fire management,
and population monitoring are underway as part of a
recovery plan for this species, which largely occurs in
reserved habitats.The smoky mouse constructs large, many-chambered
nesting burrows up to 25 m long. Photo: Peter Menkhorstmammal, the smoky mouse (Pseudomys fumeus). Once more, I
took poor photos of the mammal held in my trembling fingers.
After releasing it and watching it scuttle into a dark recess
between boulders, I drove to the nearest phone reception point.
No ordinary rodent
Capturing a smoky mouse (or konoom) was highly significant.
The species was first recorded in New South Wales in 1993 and
has never previously been live-trapped in Kosciuszko NP, despite
extensive trapping efforts over a 50-year period. The previous
finds comprised a hair-tube record during a large-scale hair-tube
study in 1994–5; remains located in tiger quoll scats in 1996; and
three dead individuals outside a burrow, probably the result of
feral cat kills, in 1998. Kosciuszko NP is only the second locality
in which live captures have been made in the entire state since
- I had undertaken some 6480 trap nights over a six-year
period – both on spoil dumps and natural screes in the valley
- so why hadn’t I encountered a smoky mouse before? Perplexed,
I told Gabriel and Linda the big news: our artificial boulderfield
had yielded a very special rodent indeed.
Here, and then gone
Two more nights of trapping revealed another male and a female, all
caught in the same trap or in a trap located deep in a recess at the
base of the artificial boulderfield. Why here, of all places? Remote
cameras on 16 natural screes nearby in Happy Jacks Valley failed to
locate others, as did trapping on the track up Spoil Dump 1 and on
the southern face of the dump. As happened at most other smoky
mouse sites across its range, the rodents disappeared as quickly
as they came. Only a single animal was trapped a month later, and
none in November 2016, despite greater efforts.
As for the mountain pygmy-possum, I trapped a spoil dump
above the Snowy River, downstream from Guthega, and captured
22 individuals – not so surprising, given the altitude of around
1525 m and its proximity to known populations. However, it
demonstrated that this possum wasn’t restricted to the spoil
dumps at Happy Jacks Valley. Two immature males were caught in
March 2014, too, in spoil from a disused quarry near Cabramurra.
Is there something special about the spoil dumps in Happy
Jacks Valley? No smoky mice have been trapped elsewhere in the
park, despite widespread trapping. As I stand atop the artificial
boulderfield after another fruitless bout of trap checking, I gaze out
at row after row of mountains and ponder where they are now.
Not so spoiled after all
The saga has taught me that prime real estate might not be
where you expect. Artificial landscape – even that which is
displeasing to the eye, such as a spoil dump – is not necessarily
unsuitable habitat for fauna, or even for endangered species.
It is vital we don’t overlook the role ‘degraded’ areas play in
contributing to and maintaining biodiversity. So, next time you
look at a spoil dump, a weed infested ‘wasteland’ on the edge
of town, a smelly mudflat or a litter-filled creek, remember that
such places might hide animals you’ve never dreamt of finding –
because that’s what happened to me.
READING Schulz M, Wilks G, Broome L. 2012. Occupancy of spoil dumps by the
mountain pygmy-possum Burramys parvus in Kosciuszko NP. Ecological Management
& Restoration 13: 290–296. Schulz M, Wilks G, Broome L. 2012. An uncharacteristic
new population of the mountain pygmy-possum Burramys parvus in New South Wales.
Australian Zoologist 36: 22–28 Heinze D, Broome L, Mansergh, I. 2004. A review
of the ecology and conservation of the mountain pygmy-possum, Burramys parvus.
pp. 254–267 in The biology of Australian possums and gliders, (eds. RL Goldingay, SM
Jackson). Surrey Beatty & Sons, Chipping Norton Mansergh I, Broome L. 1994. The
mountain pygmy-possum of the Australian Alps. University of New South Wales Press,
Sydney. Menkhorst P, Broome L. 2008. Background and implementation information
for the smoky mouse Pseudomys fumeus. National Recovery Plan. Department of
Sustainability and Environment, Melbourne. Ford FD, Cockburn A, Broome L. 2003.
Habitat preference, diet and demography of the smoky mouse, Pseudomys fumeus
(Rodentia: Muridae), in south-eastern NSW. Wildlife Research 30: 89–101.
SNAPSHOTHANGING ON
MARTIN SCHULZ has more than three decades of experience working
with wildlife in Australia, Alaska, PNG and the north-western Hawaiian
Islands. He has also written more than 100 papers on various topics and
species. He holds a BSc (Hons) from Monash University and a PhD from
Sunshine Coast University on the natural history of the golden-tipped and
flute-nosed bats.22 | Wildlife Australia | SPRING 2017